Kyiv is reinforcing its troops concerned in combating in Russia’s Kursk area, the place Moscow’s forces have been regaining floor, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky mentioned Monday. The transfer comes forward of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officers in Saudi Arabia, as President Trump pushes for a fast ceasefire within the three-year war launched by Russia.
Ukrainian troopers launched their audacious offensive into Russia’s Kursk region in August, catching even their Western allies off guard and dealing an embarrassing blow to the Kremlin. Ukraine had hoped that controlling the Russian territory would give it leverage throughout any future talks with Moscow. Just lately, nevertheless, Ukraine has been shedding floor there: Final month, they misplaced two-thirds of the territory they as soon as managed in Kursk.
“I decided to strengthen our grouping with the mandatory forces and means, together with digital warfare and unmanned elements,” Syrsky wrote in a submit on social media on Monday.
Moscow has claimed it has taken again management of a variety of villages, together with in an accelerated advance over current days. It has additionally claimed to have captured a village inside Ukraine’s Sumy area, Novenke, which isn’t removed from an important resupply route for the Ukrainian forces nonetheless in Kursk.
These advances have come within the wake of President Trump’s decision to pause U.S. navy assist and intelligence sharing with Ukraine — a choice the White Home has defended as powerful, however essential to strain President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to just accept a truce alongside the vague lines Mr. Trump envisions.
Syrsky asserted on Monday that the dynamics of combating between the Kursk and Sumy areas had been “below the management of the Ukrainian Protection Forces.”
He additionally addressed considerations circulating in Ukrainian media that Ukrainian troops there could possibly be surrounded by Russian fighters, saying: “At present, there isn’t a menace of encirclement of our items within the Kursk area.”
He conceded, nevertheless, that Ukrainian forces had been buckling below mounting Russian strain and had been having to fall again to positions which are simpler to carry.
“The items are taking well timed measures to maneuver to favorable protection traces,” he mentioned.
contributed to this report.
