The Russian military said its forces have retaken the last settlement that Ukrainian forces held in the Kursk region, after eight and a half months of fighting.
Ukrainian forces first entered Russia’s Kursk border region on Aug. 6, 2024, in a surprise offensive meant to counteract the ongoing Russian offensive inside eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff pushed back on the Russian claims, insisting that their soldiers continue to fight within Russia’s borders.
At the height of their surprise Kursk incursion, Ukrainian forces managed to seize control over a swathe of territory spanning about 500 square miles. Since then, Russian forces have slowly clawed back control over the Russian border territory.
“The operational situation is difficult but our units continue to hold designated positions and carry out assigned tasks, while inflicting effective fire damage on the enemy with all types of weapons, including using active defense tactics,” Ukraine’s military added.
The Ukrainian military claimed its forces have killed or wounded around 62,400 Russian troops within the Kursk region since the start of the fighting there last year. Similarly, Ukraine’s forces claimed to have killed or wounded more than 4,000 North Korean soldiers who had come to fight for the Russian side.
Moscow has previously been reluctant to confirm North Korean troops have assisted Russian forces on the Kursk battlefront but Gerasimov acknowledged and thanked them for their role in the fighting. The Russian military leader said those North Korean troops, acting under a strategic partnership treaty between Moscow and Pyongyang, “rendered considerable assistance in crushing the Ukrainian army’s combat group that had launched an incursion.”
Gerasimov said Russian forces killed, wounded, or captured more than 76,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk fighting.
A Bargaining Chip Lost
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at points, had suggested using Ukrainian-held parts of the Kursk region as a bargaining chip he could trade for the return of some territory Russian forces have taken from Ukraine since 2014. If Russian forces have indeed routed the Kurk offensive, it’s likely to weaken Zelenskyy’s hand in potential negotiations to settle the war.Zelenskyy has insisted that Ukraine will not recognize Moscow’s claim to Crimea or any other Ukrainian territory Russian forces have captured since 2014.
Trump and Zelenskyy met for a brief face-to-face meeting at the Vatican on Saturday, ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral. Zelenskyy thanked Trump for the sit-down and said they had a good discussion.
