Russia says it retakes two villages in its western Kursk region

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Monday that its forces had retaken control of two villages in its western Kursk region from Ukraine, continuing what Moscow says is a significant counter-offensive there.

Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in Kursk region since Aug. 6, when Kyiv surprised Moscow with the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since World War Two.

Reuters could not independently verify the report by Russia’s Defence Ministry that its troops had retaken the settlements of Uspenovka and Borki. They lie about 12 miles (20 km) apart on the border with Ukraine’s Sumy region.

A senior Russian commander and pro-Kremlin war bloggers said last week that Russia had restored control over about 10 settlements in the region, an assertion Reuters was unable to confirm.

Ukraine says its forces control about 100 villages in Kursk over an area of more than 1,300 square km (500 square miles), which Russian sources dispute.

The governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, on Monday ordered the evacuation of settlements in two districts situated within 15 km (9 miles) of the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, speaking in his nightly video address on Monday, said he had discussed the situation in Kursk with top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi “and every day we act as planned”.

Zelenskiy also said Syrskyi provided details of the slow advance of Russian forces in eastern Ukraine, particularly on the rail and logistic hub of Pokrovsk.

He said 100 battles had occurred in the last 24 hours on the eastern front, with the heaviest fighting gripping the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove sectors.

Capturing Pokrovsk would be a step towards Russia’s objective of capturing the whole of the Donetsk region.

Zelenskiy said on Friday that Ukraine’s Kursk incursion had slowed Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin says the Kursk assault has proved a distraction for Kyiv on the eastern frontline, weakening its defences there.

Ukraine said on Monday it had asked the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to join humanitarian efforts in Kursk region.

Russia and Ukraine conducted two prisoner exchanges over the weekend involving hundreds of POWs. Many Russian soldiers had been captured while defending Kursk, the defence ministry said.

Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, meanwhile, said on Telegram that she had met ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger and discussed the reunification of Russian families whose children were elsewhere in Europe.

Lvova-Belova and Putin are sought on a warrant by the International Criminal Court in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children in the war. Russia dismisses the warrants as meaningless and politically motivated.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Felix Light and Lucy Papachristou, Additional reporting by Oleskandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv; Editing by Mark Trevelyan, Ron Popeski and Jonathan Oatis)