Russia is stepping up a concerted drive to push invading Ukrainian forces out of a slice of Russian border territory in the Kursk region, British officials said Monday, seeking to reverse an incursion last year that proved highly embarrassing for the Kremlin.
Moscow has been attempting to push Ukrainian forces from the 115-square-mile salient through “slow, grinding advances” since Kyiv’s forces first seized the ground in a surprise August 2024 operation. Russia later deployed about 12,000 North Korean troops in October 2024 to assist in repelling the incursion.
However, Russian forces have made only “gradual gains” to reclaim their territory despite the intensified campaign, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Russian troops have succeeded in “collapsing” the northern tip of the Ukrainian position, the Washington-based think tank reported.
Russian forces continue to conduct fewer offensive operations elsewhere on the front line compared to late 2024 and early 2025, British military officials said Monday on X.
“Opportunities for Ukrainian counteroffensives have been improved by the reduced number of ground offensives being carried out by Russia,” U.K. officials said in their latest assessment of the battlefield in Ukraine. Russian supply lines around the strategic Ukrainian crossroads city of Pokrovsk in the disputed Donetsk region have also been severely degraded by enemy drone attacks, British officials said.
Analysts with ISW said the correlation between President Trump’s partial suspension of U.S. intelligence-sharing with Kyiv as he presses for a ceasefire and the start of Russia’s more aggressive moves against the Ukrainian Kursk position was “noteworthy.”
“Kremlin officials have recently announced their intention to take advantage of the suspension of U.S. military aid and intelligence-sharing to ’inflict maximum damage’ to Ukrainian forces on the ground during the limited time frame before the possible future resumption of U.S. intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine,” the ISW noted in its latest report on the fighting in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials see the occupied land in Kursk as a key bargaining chip in forcing Russia to withdraw from some of the territory it now controls in Ukraine’s east and south.
