Russia-Ukraine War Map Shows Kyiv's Advances in Kursk

Ukrainian forces have advanced in the southern Russian Kursk region, new maps show, as Kyiv plugs on with cross-border operations and contends with Russian gains in the east.

Gains include southwest of the town of Korenevo, said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank. Footage geolocated to the Kursk region also indicates Ukraine has advanced east of Korenevo, the institute evaluated Tuesday.

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukraine is more than a month into its cross-border incursion into Kursk, a push that caught Russia, and many international observers, by surprise. Thousands of troops, including those armed with Western weapons, crossed the border in the most significant advance into Russian territory since the start of full-scale war nearly two and a half years ago.

Many attacks focused on the area around the town of Sudzha, which Ukraine claimed just over a week after the incursion got underway, and toward Korenevo, a town northwest of Sudzha.

Ukraine has clinched control of more than 1,300 square kilometers—or just over 500 square miles—of territory and 100 settlements in Kursk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month.

Russia has been sluggish to respond, despite quickly sending reinforcements to the area, but sources have now indicated Moscow has started a concerted counteroffensive in Kursk in recent days, hoping to dislodge Ukraine's grip on border territory.

A prominent Russian military blogger said early on Wednesday that Russian forces were advancing in several settlements, including Apanasovka and Byakhovo, south of Korenevo.

Ukrainian forces were "active" close to the town of Sudzha in the previous day, the blogger said, with battles reported in several locations around the settlement.

Another military blogger said Russia had seized control of Snagost, a village south of Korenevo, and a handful of settlements including Byakhovo.

Major General Apti Alaudinov, the commander of the Chechen Akhmat special forces deployed in Kursk, told Russian state news agency Tass on Wednesday that the situation was "good," adding that Russian troops had "gone on the offensive" along the "right flank" in Kursk.

A total of 10 settlements have been recaptured by Russia since Tuesday, Alaudinov said.

Popular Ukrainian war tracking blog, Deep State, said on Tuesday that the situation had "worsened" in Kursk, with Russian forces beginning "active assault operations."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had hinted at military plans in Kursk during a press briefing on Tuesday, but did not offer any details.

While Russia appears to have struggled in Kursk, Moscow has reported a string of gains in eastern Ukraine in the past few days as its forces slowly but surely head toward the strategic Donetsk city of Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk has been referred to as a "fortress" settlement, key to Ukrainian defenses in the east and connected to other critical defensive cities, including Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Kostiantynivka. It sits close to the Donetsk border with the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, and claiming Pokrovsk would put much of Donetsk under Russian control.

Pokrovsk military administration chief Serhiy Dobryak told the BBC on Monday that Russia had approximately 10 times the amount of forces fighting around Pokrovsk compared to Ukraine.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that its forces had captured several Donetsk settlements, including Krasnohorivka, Halytsynivka and Vodiane.

Moscow said on Monday that it had captured Memryk, a settlement east of Pokrovsk. The day before, the Russian government said it had seized Novohrodivka, just southeast of Pokrovsk.

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