Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that his country has regained control of Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, though Ukraine\u2019s army says fighting continues. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Kyiv regime\u2019s adventure has completely failed,\u201d Putin said Saturday, congratulating the Russian forces that he said defeated the Ukrainian military in the region in what would be a symbolic boost for Moscow at a crucial point in the war. <\/p>\n
But the General Staff of Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces said in a Telegram post that Putin\u2019s claim about the end of hostilities in Kursk was \u201cnot true.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe defensive operation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in the designated areas in Kursk region continues. The operational situation is difficult, but our units continue to hold their positions and perform their assigned tasks,\u201d the Telegram post said. <\/p>\n
Ukraine launched its shock incursion into Kursk in August, swiftly capturing territory in what was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II. <\/p>\n
Since then, Russia, with support from North Korean soldiers, has been fighting to oust Ukraine\u2019s forces from its borders, while Kyiv had poured precious resources into holding onto its territory there, with the view of using it as a key bargaining chip in any peace talks. The operation was also launched to relieve pressure from the embattled eastern frontline. <\/p>\n
In his address, Putin said recapturing Kursk \u201ccreates conditions for further successful actions of our troops in other important areas of the front.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a post on Telegram, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, thanked the North Korean soldiers, praising their \u201chigh professionalism, steadfastness, courage and heroism in battle.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports found that about 12,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to fight in Russia. <\/p>\n
If Putin\u2019s claims are true, hopes of using Kursk as a bargaining counter are now gone and Ukraine\u2019s retreat has the potential to dent Kyiv\u2019s political clout as well as its military\u2019s morale after three years of war and with intense efforts underway towards finding peace. <\/p>\n
Though the US has attempted to broker peace talks between Ukraine and Russia over recent months, tensions between the leaders of the three countries have meant that very little has come to fruition. <\/p>\n
Another whirlwind week of diplomacy saw US President Donald Trump accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of making it \u201cso difficult to settle this war\u201d for refusing to accept Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea but later saying Russia and Ukraine were \u201cvery close to a deal.\u201d <\/p>\n
On Saturday morning, at the funeral of the late Pope Francis in the Vatican, Zelensky briefly met with Trump for talks on potential peace negotiations. A White House spokesperson called the meeting \u201cproductive,\u201d while Zelensky thanked Trump for the meeting, writing on X that it \u201chas potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.\u201d <\/p>\n
This story has been updated.<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that his country has regained control of Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, though Ukraine\u2019s army says fighting continues. \u201cThe Kyiv regime\u2019s adventure has completely failed,\u201d Putin said Saturday, congratulating the Russian forces that he said defeated the Ukrainian military in the region…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/republicanstradetoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}