Russia says it retook one of last villages in Kursk

MOSCOW

Russia on Tuesday said it had retaken one of the last important villages held by Ukraine in its Kursk region, with Moscow having recaptured most of the border area since Kiev's shock August 2024 attack.

Ukraine launched its incursion, the largest by a foreign army on Russian territory since World War II, two-and-a-half years after Moscow ordered the start of its full-scale military offensive in 2022.

Ukraine's troops seized dozens of settlements and hundreds of square kilometers of territory, but have since been pushed back and now control only a small strip of land along the border.

The Russian defence ministry said its troops had taken control of the village of Guyevo, near the Ukraine border and south of the regional hub of Sudzha, which Moscow reclaimed last month.

The Kremlin has praised its troops for a quick offensive in the Kursk region launched in March, after seven months of Kiev holding on to chunks of Russian territory.

But intense fighting has been ongoing in border villages.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said for the first time on Monday that Kiev's forces were operating in the Russian region of Belgorod, which neighbours the Kursk region.

The Kremlin on Tuesday refused to comment on that claim.

Moscow has moved hundreds of civilians that had been trapped by fighting in the Kursk region to safety eastwards, as its troops advance to retake villages.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on Ukrainian soldiers in the area to surrender, while vowing they will be treated as terrorists and subject to criminal prosecution if captured by Russia.