Moscow’s forces push to recapture lost ground in southwestern Russia.
Moscow’s forces are close to encircling around 10,000 elite Ukrainian troops as they look to recapture the town of Sudzha in southwestern Russia.
Kremlin-allied military bloggers on Wednesday shared videos of soldiers unfurling a Russian flag in Sudzha’s central square, which had been occupied by Kyiv’s forces since August 2024.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Telegram that “the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat Ukrainian Armed Forces formations on the territory of the Kursk region.”
Ukraine has been under intense pressure in the Kursk region — which it attacked last summer to boost domestic morale and use as a potential bargaining chip in possible peace negotiations — after Russian and North Korean troops launched a fierce counteroffensive.
The Ukrainians now face a tricky, narrow exit from Sudzha, the biggest foothold seized in their lightning raid, as Russian forces look to envelop the town.
Ruslan Leviev, founder of the independent war monitor Conflict Intelligence Team, told exiled Russian broadcaster TV Rain on Wednesday that Ukrainian soldiers are slowly retreating.
“The history of the Kursk bridgehead is coming to an end. Perhaps today this story will be over, or maybe the border villages will still try to hold on for a couple more days,” said Leviev.
“At this point, it’s fair to say that the entire city of Sudzha is now under Russian control,” he added.
According to DeepStateMap, a reputable interactive online chart of the hostilities, Russia has captured five other settlements.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi claimed Monday there is “no threat of encirclement” in Kursk. “The units are taking timely measures to maneuver to favorable defense lines,” Syrskyi wrote on Facebook.
“Our troops in the Kursk region are carrying out their tasks. The Russians are trying to put maximum pressure on our troops. The military command [of Ukraine] is doing what it should do: saving the maximum number of lives of our soldiers,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday.
Ukraine’s surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk last August, in what amounted to the first invasion of Russia since World War II, caught Russian President Vladimir Putin and his generals unprepared. It also changed the conflict narrative for Ukraine, which until then had been steadily, if slowly, losing territory to the Russians.
Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.
