Kursk Update: Ukraine Expands Territorial Gains as Four Villages Taken

Ukraine has taken control of a further four settlements more than a week into its surprise incursion into Russia, reports suggest, as Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky says Kyiv has advanced more than a mile in Kursk in just a few hours.

Thousands of Ukrainian troops crossed over into Kursk more than a week ago, kicking off the most significant advance into Russian territory since the start of the full-scale war nearly two-and-a-half years ago.

Moscow scrambled to respond, sending reinforcements to the border as Kyiv's fighters quickly advanced, with the town of Sudzha and the area around the town of Korenovo, northwest of Sudzha, among the first targets.

Moscow's senior officials have said its troops, under a "counter-terrorism operation" led by the Russian federal security service, the FSB, have halted Ukrainian gains. Yet Russia's community of prominent military bloggers, often used as sources of information on the war not made public by the Kremlin, Western analysis and Kyiv officials has indicated continued Ukrainian progress further into Kursk in recent days.

The Ukrainian military currently controls 74 settlements in Kursk, Zelensky said on Tuesday, as Kyiv officials more openly acknowledge the incursion following days of silence.

In a later statement on Wednesday, the Ukrainian leader then said Kyiv was "advancing in the Kursk region, one to two kilometers in various areas since the beginning of the day." This would mean Ukraine has advanced just over a mile in the region in the space of a few hours.

One of Russia's military bloggers said on Wednesday that Ukraine had "captured three new villages" in Kursk, named as Malaya Loknya, Kruglenkoe, which lies immediately west of Malaya Loknya, and Olgovka—northwest of Malaya Loknya, just to the east of Korenovo.

Russia kept hold of Pogrebki, a village north of Malaya Loknya, the channel said, adding that Ukraine "still holds the initiative, and therefore, albeit slowly, is increasing its presence in the Kursk region."

Unconfirmed reports also suggested Ukraine has taken control of Plekhovo, a village not far from the border and to the south of Sudzha.

Newsweek could not independently verify these reports. Russia's Defense Ministry has been contacted for comment via email.

Ukraine's army chief, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi, had said on Monday that Kyiv controlled just under 400 square miles of Kursk. There is some doubt among Western analysts over whether Kyiv has a full grasp on this territory.

The U.S.-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Tuesday that it believed around 41 Kursk settlements were under Ukrainian control, although there are "many extremely small settlements and localities within this area" that were excluded from this tally.

Alexei Smirnov, the acting governor of the Kursk region, said during a Monday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine had seized control of 28 settlements, with 2,000 residents unaccounted for in these villages.

More than 120,000 people have been evacuated from Kursk, according to Smirnov, and the neighboring Belgorod region also started moving residents away from the Ukrainian border earlier this week.

"I say it straight: the crisis has not yet been overcome," Smirnov said on Tuesday.

The overall goals of the operation, and what the next steps will be, are still unclear. However, Kyiv has indicated that it is "not interested in taking the territory of the Kursk region," but that the incursion is designed to protect Ukraine from highly destructive aerial strikes launched from the Russian territory.

Separately, Ukraine's military said on Wednesday that its forces had destroyed a Russian Su-34 supersonic jet over Kursk late on Tuesday.

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