Ukrainian forces are continuing to hold substantial territory in its surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, a battlefield map shows, as President Vladimir Putin seeks to shift blame for the nearly three-week-old offensive onto regional authorities.
A map published Sunday by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, shows Kyiv’s claimed positions in the region, which borders Ukraine’s Sumy. Putin’s forces are attempting to push opposing troops out of Russian territory.
INSTITUTE FOR THE STUDY OF WAR
Kyiv launched its lightning offensive on August 6 and was quickly reported to have seized more territory in the Kursk region than Russia has captured in Ukraine since the beginning of the year.
Kyiv’s forces have seized control of at least 1,250 square kilometers (482 square miles) of Russian territory and 92 settlements, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said August 19 of the Kursk incursion’s progress.
Ukraine’s success in the region has forced Russia’s military to deploy additional resources to Kursk, diverting manpower away from the war it started in across the border in February 2022. Putin has ordered his forces to push back Ukrainian troops from Kursk by October 1, according to RBC Ukraine.
The ISW said Russian pro-war military bloggers on Telegram have claimed that Putin’s forces recently regained some lost positions in the region amid reports of continued Ukrainian attacks in the area on Sunday.
One military blogger claimed Russian forces had pushed Ukrainian troops out of the Komarovka settlement and were repelling small Ukrainian attacks in the area, while several others claimed that the settlements of Olgovka and Kremyanoye had been recaptured.
“Russian forces likely continue to operate within select areas of the Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast as Ukrainian forces likely do not control all of the territory within the maximalist extent of claims about Ukrainian advances in Kursk Oblast,” the ISW assessed.
Newsweek has contacted Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry for comment by email.
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On Thursday, Putin told regional officials via a virtual meeting that the “security issues” in Russia’s Kursk region “are problems that are the responsibility of the security agencies.”
“I hope that, as was reported today, interaction between local and regional authorities, the government, and security agencies has been established, and this will also play a positive role in achieving the goals that we have here,” Putin told the governors of the Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions, and Kremlin officials.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said on August 8 the armored assault aims to boost Kyiv’s position in potential future negotiations with Russia. He added Kyiv hopes the country’s advances will “scare” Russians and worsen their attitude toward Putin.
Days later, a Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Kyiv has no interest in “taking territory” in Kursk.
“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace, the sooner Ukrainian raids on Russian territory will stop. As long as Putin continues the war, he will receive such responses from Ukraine,” the spokesperson told reporters in Kyiv on August 13.
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