Russian army says Kursk region ‘fully liberated’ from Ukraine

MOSCOW: The Russian army has fully liberated the border Kursk region from Ukrainian control, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since its offensive began in 2022.

“Today, the last settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, has been liberated from Ukrainian forces,” Gerasimov said during a video conference meeting with Putin.

“The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin told Gerasimov, thanking the soldiers for the service and saying that Kursk’s liberation will create the conditions for further advances at other parts of the front.

Russian troops are now at the border and are poised to beef up threats to the Ukrainian region of Sumy, which faces Kursk, where Moscow has already carried out incursions in recent weeks.

Gerasimov especially hailed the “heroism” of the North Korean soldiers taking part in the operation, who “provided significant assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces”.

According to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies, more than 10,000 soldiers from North Korea were sent to Russia last year to help Moscow fight Ukraine’s shock offensive in Kursk.