TIMELINE: A look back at battle for Kursk as Russia says it will soon retake region

Record ID: 1983384

  • Title: TIMELINE: A look back at battle for Kursk as Russia says it will soon retake region
  • Date: 22nd August 2024
  • Summary: Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting in Moscow on November 4 with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, at a time of mounting concern in the West about growing military ties between the two countries. MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FILE - NOVEMBER 4, 2024) (RUSSIAN POOL) RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN ENTERING ROOM AND SHAKING HANDS WITH NORTH KOREAN FOREIGN MINISTER C
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: IAEA Kursk Putin Russia Ukraine Zelenskiy incursion offensive timeline
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe
  • Reuters ID: LVA00X721516082024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Russia battled on Sunday (March 16) to drive the last Ukrainian soldiers from western Russia, Russian officials said, after a seven-month incursion by Ukraine that aimed to distract Moscow's forces, gain a bargaining chip and rile President Vladimir Putin.
    In one of the most striking battles of the three-year-old Ukraine war, Ukrainian forces smashed their way across Russia's western border in Kursk last August, marking the biggest attack on sovereign Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.
    But a lightning offensive this month has reduced the area under Ukrainian control to about 110 square km (42 square miles), down from the more than 1,368 square km (528 square miles) claimed by Kyiv last year, according to open source maps.
    Yuri Podolyaka, one of the most influential pro-Russian military bloggers, said Russia had pushed back Ukrainian forces to the border in some areas, though intense battles were underway and that Ukrainian forces were fighting back as they retreated.
    Battlefield maps from both Ukraine and Russia showed two joined pockets of Ukrainian forces on the Russian side of the border in Kursk. Russia said it was clearing large numbers of mines in the area.
    After a public appeal by U.S. President Donald Trump last week to spare "surrounded" Ukrainian troops, Putin said on Friday that Russia would guarantee the lives of Ukrainian troops in the region if they surrendered.
    President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday (March 15) his troops were not surrounded but sounded the alarm over what he said could be a new Russian attack on Ukraine's northeast Sumy region, which borders Kursk.
    The influential Two Majors pro-Russian military blogger said the battlefield gains of Russian forces had allowed Russia to threaten Sumy, but cautioned that Ukrainian forces had been bolstering defences there for some time.
    Putin has accused Ukrainian troops of carrying out crimes against civilians in Kursk, something Kyiv denies. Ukraine says as many as 11,000 North Korean troops are fighting with Russia in Kursk, though Russia and North Korea have refused to give any details on North Korean troops there.
    The fierce battle for the Kursk region has framed efforts by Trump to end what he says is a "bloodbath" war that could escalate into World War Three.
    (Production: Paul Warren, Carla O'Connor, Thomas Holdstock, Lisa Giles-Keddie)
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