Russia says forces poised to complete recapture of Kursk region as Witkoff heads to Moscow
Kremlin says troops took border town of Sudzha from Ukraine; Putin, wearing fatigues, visits territory; US negotiators head to Russian capital with 30-day truce plan
MOSCOW — Russia said on Thursday there was no doubt that its troops would soon complete the task of clearing out Ukrainian forces from Russia’s Kursk region where they have held a pocket of territory for more than seven months.
The Russian Defense 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.
Russian war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, reporting from Sudzha, said: “The town is constantly being hit by enemy artillery, but focal resistance has been suppressed.”
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts from either side.
Ukraine sprang one of the biggest shocks of the war on August 6 last year by storming across the border and grabbing a chunk of territory that Kyiv hoped to use as a bargaining chip in peace talks.
But Russia’s forces, supported by troops from its ally North Korea, have gradually clawed back the lost ground, mounting what appears to be a final push just as the US tries to get Moscow to agree to a proposed ceasefire in the three-year war.
President Vladimir Putin, donning combat fatigues, visited Kursk on Wednesday and ordered his commanders to swiftly finish the job.
Kremlin 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 that the Kursk region will be liberated soon enough.”
Video from 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. Regional governor Alexander Khinshtein said 120 Russian civilians had been rescued from the town and evacuated.
❗️Russia's Defense Ministry showed footage from liberated Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region https://t.co/cjNUA1Mify pic.twitter.com/CWxifyibQo
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) March 13, 2025
The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The US on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The US president has made veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that US negotiators were on their way to Russia, but he wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart.
She also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly including Putin.
They are to present their plan for a 30-day truce in Ukraine, after receiving Kyiv’s backing earlier this week.
Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said he expected the military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the nearest future.”
Putin added that in the future “it’s necessary to think about creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could complicate a ceasefire deal.
Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the dynamic of the war.
Meanwhile, Major General Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on Wednesday.
He told the outlet he was not given a reason for his dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it yet.”
Russia says peacekeepers in Ukraine mean ‘direct armed conflict’
Russia said Thursday that countries deploying peacekeepers in Ukraine would be engaging in a “direct armed conflict” with Moscow, and that it would respond to this by “all available means.”
Ukraine has asked its European allies to deploy military “contingents” on its territory once the three-year conflict ends, to protect against future attacks from Russia.
France and the UK have suggested they could deploy peacekeeping forces, but Moscow has balked at this idea — either as part of a ceasefire or as a long-term security guarantee for Ukraine.
“It is absolutely unacceptable to us that army units of other states are stationed in Ukraine under any flag,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a briefing.
“Be it a foreign contingent and a military base… all this would mean the involvement of these countries in a direct armed conflict with our country,” she added.
