By Mark Trevelyan and Lucy Papachristou
(Reuters) – 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.
President Vladimir Putin is in a hurry to press ahead and capitalise on Russia’s growing momentum in Kursk, even as the United States puts pressure on him to accept a 30-day ceasefire in the wider war, which Kyiv has accepted in principle. A Kremlin aide said the proposed truce would give Russia nothing, while providing a breathing space for Ukrainian forces.
In a sign of the Kremlin’s growing confidence, Putin donned military uniform for a visit to his commanders in Kursk on Wednesday and told them to finish the job “in the shortest possible timeframe”.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday that Russian troops would take “as long as necessary to save the maximum number of lives of our military and civilians. But there is no doubt the Kursk region will be liberated soon enough.”
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces were pounding remaining Ukrainian positions after capturing three more settlements, including the town of Sudzha, which is located near the border with Ukraine and lies on a road that Kyiv had used to resupply its forces.
Ukraine’s top army commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Wednesday that Kyiv’s troops would keep operating in Kursk as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around Sudzha.
UKRAINIAN GAMBLE
Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Kursk last August aimed to embarrass Putin, divert Russian forces from elsewhere on the front lines and grab land to trade for its own captured territory. Its troops were the first to invade Russia since Adolf Hitler’s army in 1941.
But Russia’s forces, supported by troops from its ally North Korea, have gradually clawed back the lost ground, intensifying pressure on Ukraine in the past week by cutting supply lines and threatening to encircle some of its soldiers.
Video from the town of Sudzha, published by Russian media and military bloggers, showed scenes of devastation from the seven months of fighting, with burnt-out vehicles, roofless buildings and mountains of rubble.
Russian war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, reporting from Sudzha, said: “The town is constantly being hit by enemy artillery, but focal resistance has been suppressed.”
Loud booms could be heard in a video he posted on Telegram.
Regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said 120 Russian civilians had been rescued from the town and evacuated.
Sudzha had a population of 4,941 as of January last year, according to official data. Most of its people fled last August, but some told Reuters they were now planning to return home.
“We will return and rebuild our beautiful city at the first opportunity,” a woman who gave her name as Ekaterina said in a text message.
Some locals said they were unsure what they would find when they returned.
Tatyana, 31, said she had caught a glimpse of her house just outside Sudzha in a video published online last week. There was a hole in the roof caused by shrapnel but no other damage.
“It pains me to see the city destroyed,” she said.
Tina, 82, vowed she would return to her 15-hectare farm north of Sudzha – near the site of intense battles this week – to be close to her husband’s grave.
(Reporting by Mark Trevelyan, Lucy Papachristou and Gleb Stolyarov; Editing by Gareth Jones)
