The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday its troops retook the villages of Viktorovka, Nikolaevka and Staraya Sorochina in Russia’s western Kursk region from Ukrainian forces.
The report could not be independently confirmed.
The Russian army has been fighting to eject Ukrainian troops from Kursk since last August, when Kyiv’s forces staged a lightning incursion over the border and seized a swath of Russian territory.
According to certain reports, Ukraine was able to capture about 250 Sqkm of territory in that area. However, they failed to reduce the pace of operations of Russia forces on their eastern flank. There were also reports of North Korean troops being employed by Russians in Kursk. Ukraine possibly had in mind the idea of trading some territories that it has lost in exchange for the areas captured in Kursk by its troops in Ukraine.
Open source maps showed this week that Ukraine’s positions have deteriorated sharply in Kursk, where its troops are nearly surrounded by Russian forces.
Two Majors, a pro-Russian war blogger, wrote on Telegram on Saturday that Russian troops had begun an assault on Sudzha, a major town about 6 miles (9.5 km) from the border, and that the situation for Ukrainian troops in Kursk was “close to critical”.
With US assistance doubtful in the near future, it may be difficult for the Ukrainians to continue to hold the lines in Kursk. The US has already pressed the pause button on intelligence sharing and as such the Ukrainians will not have enough information of Russian troop movement.
The next few days are critical for the Ukrainians. Until and unless President Trump finds a formula that’s acceptable to both the parties, Ukraine might lose more territory. For the Ukrainians a rather tenuous future is all that’s currently predictable.
Team BharatShakti
(With Inputs from Reuters)
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