Putin instructs military to fully reclaim Russia's Kursk region VIDEO

Russian President Vladimir Putin has instructed the Russian Armed Forces to swiftly eliminate enemy forces entrenched in the Kursk region and fully reclaim the territory.

Putin issued this directive during a meeting at one of the command posts overseeing the Kursk military grouping, Caliber.Az reports via Russian media.

"Your task is to decisively defeat the enemy still operating in the Kursk region as soon as possible and to fully restore control over the region," Putin stated.

The president further emphasized the need to reestablish control along Russia’s state border.

On March 12, Russian media reported that Russian forces had taken control of the town of Sudzha in the Kursk region. Reports indicate that military units raised the Russian flag in the town centre, with a battalion from the 11th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade entering Sudzha’s main square.

Earlier, reports suggested that several Ukrainian brigades had withdrawn from the region due to the threat of encirclement.

The current escalation stems from events in August 2024, when Ukrainian forces crossed the state border from the Sumy region and seized several settlements in the border area of the Kursk region. The objective of this operation was to weaken the Russian army’s combat capabilities and force Moscow to divert resources away from its offensive campaigns in Donetsk, Sumy, and Kharkiv regions.

For the past seven months, Russian forces have been gradually pushing Ukrainian troops out of occupied settlements. The fighting in the Kursk region intensified in early March, with Ukraine’s General Staff acknowledging significant Russian advances.

Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrskyy stated that Russia’s objective is to drive Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk region and extend hostilities into Sumy and Kharkiv regions. However, he stressed that Russian forces are suffering substantial losses in the ongoing battles.

Russian media sources claim that Ukrainian forces have lost over 66,000 troops and approximately 400 tanks in the Kursk region.

Some analysts have attributed the recent Russian military successes to the temporary suspension of US intelligence-sharing with Ukraine by the Donald Trump administration. This disruption reportedly hindered Ukraine’s ability to launch effective HIMARS rocket strikes. However, on March 11, both US and Ukrainian officials confirmed that Washington had resumed intelligence-sharing with Kyiv.

The escalation comes as February 24 marked the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

By Tamilla Hasanova