Russia Launches Major Kursk Counteroffensive: Reports

Russian forces have launched a concerted push against Ukrainian troops in the border Kursk region, according to both Moscow and Kyiv sources, more than a month after Ukraine launched its surprise incursion across the border.

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. Separately, Alaudinov reshared a Russian military blogger statement on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, which described a "breakthrough" in Kursk that drove Ukrainian forces from "nearly a dozen villages."

Ukraine sprung its cross-border push into Kursk in early August, taking Russia —and many international observers — by surprise. Moscow has been slow to respond to the thousands of troops, including those armed with Western weapons, crossing 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.

The Mash Telegram channel, a pro-Kremlin source claiming to have links to Russian law enforcement, said on Wednesday that Russia was in the midst of a "local counteroffensive in the region," and that Moscow's forces had advanced up to 150 square kilometers, or just under 60 square miles. Another high-profile blogger, Rybar, reported a Russian counteroffensive around Korenevo on Tuesday.

A prominent Russian military blogger said early on Wednesday that Russian forces were advancing in several settlements, including Apanasovka and Byakhovo, south of Korenevo. Another military blogger said Russia had seized control of Snagost, a village south of Korenevo, and a handful of settlements including Byakhovo.

The Mash Telegram channel said Russia had captured Snagost and Apanasovka, along with several other villages.

Popular Ukrainian war-tracking blog Deep State said on Tuesday that the situation had "worsened" in Kursk, with Russian forces beginning "active assault operations." It described an armored column moving towards Snagost, but did not say the village had been taken by Russia.

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

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

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that Ukraine had sustained approximately 12,200 casualties in Kursk, and lost nearly 100 tanks.

Moscow said it had repelled Ukrainian attacks on several Kursk settlements, including Apanasovka, which neighbors Snagost and Byakhovo, and Cherkasskaya Konopel'ka, southeast of Sudzha.

Ukraine's General Staff did not comment on Kursk operations in a Wednesday morning statement, saying only that Russia maintained a "military presence" on the border with its Sumy region bordering Kursk, launching air strikes and shelling border settlements.

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