Acting commander of Russia’s 810th Brigade of the Black Sea Fleet reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that "scattered groups and individual soldiers" of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fighting in the Kursk region "will soon be destroyed," Russian government-controlled RIA Novosti reported on April 27.
The statement, contradicts an earlier report by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov that Russian forces have fully recaptured the territory of Kursk Oblast, the Russian border region partially held by Ukraine since last August.
According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, fighting in Kursk Oblast continues.
"Our troops continue active defensive operations in designated areas of the Kursk and Belgorod regions," Zelensky reported on April 27, acknowledging that the heaviest fighting is taking place in Kursk and Donetsk oblasts.
Ukraine also earlier denied the Kremlin's claim, saying that the statements "do not correspond to reality."
"Ukrainian defensive operations in certain areas of Kursk Oblast continue," Ukraine's General Staff said on April 26, adding that Kyiv's forces repelled five Russian ground assaults in the area on April 26.
"The situation is difficult, but our units continue to hold certain positions and carry out tasks as assigned," the statement read, noting that there is no threat of encirclement. A military source also told the Kyiv Independent that Kyiv continues to hold territories in Kursk Oblast.
Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, marking the first large-scale invasion of Russian territory by foreign forces since World War II. The operation aimed to disrupt a planned Russian offensive on the neighboring Sumy Oblast and draw Russian forces away from the embattled Donbas region.
Russia launched a push to recapture the region in early March, with Ukraine being forced to pull back from much of the initially taken territory, including the town of Sudzha.
On April 26, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov for the first time acknowledged the participation of North Korean troops in the campaign, praising their "fortitude and heroism."
Kyiv and Seoul have previously said that North Korea has dispatched around 11,000 troops to Kursk Oblast, though Moscow has not openly confirmed this until now.
Chris York
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