Russia says it recaptured three more villages as Ukraine loses ground in Kursk region

Russian troops recaptured three more villages seized by Ukraine in the Kursk border region, where Kyiv’s forces have been losing ground recently, defence ministry said on Sunday.

A ministry statement said they had recaptured the villages of Malaya Loknya, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Kositsa, having already claimed gains in the Russian region earlier this weekend.

On Saturday, Russian troops regained control of three villages in Kursk - Viktorovka, Nikolaevka and Staraya Sorochina .

Ukraine launched a daring cross-border incursion into Kursk in August, marking the largest attack on Russian territory since World War II. Within days, Ukrainian units had captured 1,000 square kilometers (386 square miles) of territory, including the strategic border town of Sudzha, and taken hundreds of Russian prisoners of war.

According to Kyiv, the operation aimed to gain a bargaining chip in future peace talks and to force Russia to divert troops away from its grinding offensive in eastern Ukraine.

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But months after Ukraine’s thunder run, its soldiers in Kursk are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 troops, including some from Russian ally North Korea. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are at risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield show.

With inputs from agencies