Despite the Russian military’s assertions, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that his troops are still fighting in the Russian region of Kursk.
“Our units are continuing active defensive operations in the [Russian] regions of Kursk and Belgorod,” Zelensky said in a post on X. He also said fighting continues near Pokrovsk and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.
On Saturday, the Russian military claimed the Kursk region had been “completely liberated.” It said Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov had reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that all Ukrainian units in the Kursk region had been defeated and that only individual Ukrainian soldiers were still “trying to hide.”
It is not currently possible to provide a precise and independent overview of the situation in the region.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces unexpectedly advanced across the border into Russian territory near Kursk in early August last year and initially gained up to 1,300 square kilometres of Russian territory, before being pushed back. Kiev aimed to force Moscow to redeploy troops and take Russian pressure off the fronts in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian General Staff on Saturday also rejected Russia’s claim that it had recaptured Kursk as a “propaganda move.” Fighting continued not only in some parts of the Kursk region, but also in the neighbouring Russian region of Belgorod, Ukraine’s General Staff said.
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