Russia Claims to Have Routed Last Ukrainian Forces in Kursk Border Region

Ukrainian troops have maintained a foothold within Russia’s western Kursk border region since launching a surprise attack there in August.

Ukrainian servicemen operate a Soviet-made T-72 tank in the Sumy region, near the border with Russia, on Aug. 12, 2024. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images

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.

“Today, the last settlement on the territory of the Kursk Region, the village of Gornal, has been liberated from Ukrainian troops,” Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov announced on April 26 in a statement carried by Russian state-run news agency TASS.

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.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense issued a separate statement claiming that the April 26 military operations culminated in a complete rout of all Ukrainian military units within the Kursk border region.

The Ukrainian military’s General Staff pushed back on the Russian claims, insisting that their soldiers continue to fight within Russia’s borders.

“Sixteen fighting clashes took place today on the Kursk direction, two of which are still ongoing,” the Ukrainian General Staff said later on April 26.

At the height of their surprise Kursk incursion, Ukrainian forces managed to seize control over a swath 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 that its forces have killed or wounded about 62,400 Russian troops within the Kursk region since the start of the fighting there last year. Ukraine’s forces have also 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 them 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 that Russian forces killed, wounded, or captured more than 76,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk fighting.

Exact casualty figures from the two sides could not be independently verified.

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.

While Ukraine’s Kursk salient has all but collapsed, Ukrainian forces have claimed a new foothold in Russia’s neighboring Belgorod region.

U.S. President Donald Trump clashed with Zelenskyy this week over whether Ukraine should continue fighting for the return of all its pre-2014 territory. Trump has pushed for a deal to stop the fighting as soon as possible and this week said, “Crimea will stay with Russia.”

Zelenskyy has insisted that Ukraine will not recognize Moscow’s claim to Crimea or any other Ukrainian territory that Russian forces have captured since 2014.

Trump and Zelenskyy met for a brief face-to-face meeting at the Vatican on April 26, ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral. Zelenskyy thanked Trump for the sit-down and said they had a good discussion.