Russian forces have retaken Sudzha, a key stronghold of Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk Oblast, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on March 13.
The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the claim. As of late March 12, the Ukrainian military confirmed battles in the Sudzha area.
Ukrainian troops captured Sudzha, a town with a pre-war population of 6,000 some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from Ukraine's border, at the start of the Kursk incursion in August 2024.
Military analysts from the DeepState monitoring group and the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank have also reported that Russia has partially or fully seized Sudzha, as Ukraine is allegedly withdrawing from the town.
Russia's Defense Ministry published a video of the ruined Sudzha after its reported recapture. The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the footage's veracity.
"The Russian military almost entirely destroyed Sudzha with airstrikes," said Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.
"The town and its surroundings were destroyed, and few civilian buildings survived."
The news comes at the heels of a rapid Russian advance in the border region that seemed to have greatly diminished the Ukrainian salient.
Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said on March 12 that Russia has retaken more than 86% of the territory in Kursk Oblast captured by Kyiv in mid-2024.
The Russian Defense Ministry also reported capturing the settlements of Melovoi and Podol as of March 13.
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi acknowledged the "difficult situation" in the region but said that Ukraine will hold the defenses "as long as reasonable and necessary."
The development comes as the U.S. seeks to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Kyiv has sought to leverage its positions in Kursk Oblast in potential negotiations but began to rapidly lose its ground in the region at the same time that the U.S. temporarily paused military and intelligence support for Ukraine.
Asami Terajima
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