Cnn
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country had regained control of Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, although the army of Ukraine states that fighting is continuing.
“The adventure of the kyiv regime has completely failed,” said Putin on Saturday, congratulating the Russian forces which, according to him, defeated the Ukrainian army in the region in what would be a symbolic boost for Moscow at a crucial war of war.
But the general staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a telegram that Putin’s claim on the end of hostilities in Kursk was “not true”.
“The defensive functioning of the Ukrainian defense forces in the designated areas of the Kursk region continues. The operational situation is difficult, but our units continue to hold their positions and perform their assigned tasks,” said the Post Telegram.
CNN is not able to independently check the reports on the battlefield, but the two parties find it difficult to make gains elsewhere on the fronts.
Ukraine launched its shock incursion to Kursk in August, quickly capturing the territory in what was the first invasion of the Russia field by a foreign power since the Second World War.
Since then, Russia, with the support of North Korean soldiers, has been fighting to oust the forces of Ukraine from its borders, while kyiv had paid valuable resources to hold its territory, in order to use it as an ephemeral key in all peace discussions. The operation was also launched to relieve the pressure of the besieged eastern front line.
In his speech, Putin said that Kursk’s recovery “creates conditions for other successful actions of our troops in other important areas of the front”.
In an article on Telegram, Valery Gerasimov, Russian Chief of Staff, thanked the North Korean soldiers, praising their “high professionalism, buildings, courage and heroism in combat”.
Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports revealed that around 12,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to fight in Russia.
If Putin’s claims are true, hopes to use Kursk as a negotiation counter have now disappeared and Ukraine’s retirement has the potential to work the political influence of kyiv as well as the morale of its soldiers after three years of war and with intense efforts to find peace.
Although the United States has tried to negotiate peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in recent months, the tensions between the leaders of the three countries have meant that very little have materialized.
Another week of swirling diplomacy saw US President Donald Trump accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of making “so difficult to settle this war” for refusing to accept the annexation of Crimea by Russia, but later affirming that Russia and Ukraine were “very close to an agreement”.
Saturday morning, during the funeral of the late Pope Francis at the Vatican, Zelensky briefly met Trump for talks on potential peace negotiations. A White House spokesman called the “productive” meeting, while Zelensky thanked Trump for the meeting, writing on X that she “has the potential to become historic, if we get joint results”.
This story has been updated.
