Russia retakes Kursk’s largest town

Russia predicted on Thursday it would swiftly recapture the rest of its western Kursk region from Ukrainian troops who grabbed a foothold there last August and have clung on for more than seven months in one of the key battles of the war.

Russia claimed that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia’s Kursk border region.

The Russian Defence Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, could not be independently verified.

The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The US Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Russian news agencies reported that US special embpy Witkoff’s plane had landed in Moscow. It wasn’t immediately possible to verify the reports.

The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine’s daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.

Speaking to commanders, Putin said he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.” Putin added in the future “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region.

Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the three-year-long war.

A Ukrainian government official later said Kyiv understood it could not recapture all its occupied territory through military force from Russian troops right now and that its recovery would have to happen diplomatically over time.