Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from all, except for land, in Russia Kursk regionAccording to analysts and military soldiers, his campaign for months to take and occupy Russian territory seems to be approaching the Moscow counterattacks.
At the height of the offensive, the Ukrainian forces controlled about 500 square miles of Russian territory. On Sunday, they clung to a narrow strip of earth along the Russian-Ukraine border, which covered barely 30 square miles, according to Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst in the Finland Black Bird Group.
« The end of the battle arrives, » Paroinen said in a telephone interview.
The amount of Russian territory that was still under Ukrainian control could not be confirmed independently and the soldiers reported fierce struggles in the area. But in the midst of a rapid Russian advancement endorsed by relentless air attacks and Drone’s aggressions, Ukrainian troops last week have been withdrawn from several villages in the Kursk region. of Sudzhathe main city under its control.
Ukrainian military command he said That the troops had removed what he described as a more defensive ground in Russia along the border, using mountainous terrain to better control the fire on approaching Russian forces. On Sunday he threw a Map of the battlefield Showing the traffic of the Earth that Ukraine still controls in the Kursk region.
But it is not yet clear how long the Ukrainian forces can hold on to this patch.
The continued struggle in Kursk is now less about the celebration of Russian territory, said Ukrainian soldiers, and more about controlling the best defensive positions to prevent the Russians from climbing in the region of Ukraine and opening a new front in the war.
« We continue to maintain positions on the Kursk front, » said an Assault Peloton Commander, who asked to be identified only by his call poster, Boroda. « The only difference is that our positions have been made significantly more on the border. »
Although the Ukrainian withdrawal from most of the Kursk region has been fast, military experts said that it arrived after months of Russian assaults and bombings that constantly eroded Ukraine’s foot in the area and cut off their supply routes, and ended up forcing the withdrawal.
« What happened in recent months was a conformation operation that established the conditions for a successful push, » said Franz-Stefan Gady, an Austrian military analyst who visited the Ukraine Sumy region on the Kursk border last month to talk to Ukrainian commanders.
From December, Russian forces, reinforced by North Korea troops recently deployedHe threw repeated attacks on the Ukrainian bulb flanks in the Kursk region. In mid-February, they had advanced five kilometers from the main Ukraine supply routes in Southzha, allowing them to orient themselves on roads with drones.
Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that he had resumed Sudzha; On Saturday he said that Russian forces had resumed two villages outside the city.
Unlike Previous reproaches For Kyiv’s forces elsewhere, as in some parts of Eastern Ukraine, military analysts said that what happened in Kursk was relatively orderly and did not give rise to the encirclement of a large number of troops, despite claims on the contrary Made by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Trump.
« There was no threat to circle Ukrainian troops and no evidence suggests otherwise, » said Serii Kuzan, president of the Ukraine Center for Security and Cooperation, a non -governmental research group.
Kyiv had hoped to use his control over the Russian lands in Kursk as a leverage in any negotiation to end the war. Ukraine has agreed to support a cessation of cessation of the month, as long as Russia does the same. Kremlin still disagreed and It seemed that negotiations were lengthened On the cessation of the fire that Washington and Kiev proposed last week through the conditions.
Steve Witkoff, a special shipment of Mr. Trump in the Middle East, who has also acted as an interlocutor with Russia, told CNN on Sunday that he was waiting for the President to talk to Mr. Putin this week. Witkoff said he had a positive meeting with Mr. Putin last week, which lasted three to four hours. He refused to share the particularities of his conversation, but said he remained optimistic that an agreement was available.
This came after the State Department said that Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov, of Russia, spoke on the telephone on Saturday about the « next steps », without providing further details.
Nataliya vasileeva and Tyler Pager Contributed reports.
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