‘The Guardian’: 10 settlements recaptured in Kursk counteroffensive of Russian forces

Russia says its forces have recaptured 10 settlements after it launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region to push out Ukrainian troops who stormed across the border five weeks ago, ‘The Guardian’ informs.

With fierce fighting continuing, Russia’s defence ministry listed the names of 10 settlements it said it had retaken, in a significant blow to Kyiv. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, acknowledged a Russian counteroffensive had begun.

A mechanised raid began on Tuesday, according to Russian military bloggers. Russian forces pushed forward from the village of Korenevo and quickly advanced south into Snagost.

They have regained a number of villages, with two more – Krasnooktyabrskoe and Komarovka – reportedly having been captured on Thursday. One objective was to “bisect” Ukraine’s 1,000 sq km salient within Russia, cutting off its western flank, observers suggested.

The next step would be “a more organised and well-equipped effort to push Ukrainian forces” out of Russia completely, the Institute for the Study of War thinktank said. It acknowledged that the situation was fluid, with the size and scale of the counteroffensive unclear.

Russia’s troops are also making rapid gains in the eastern Donetsk region. They reportedly captured another village on the outskirts of Pokrovsk – a key Ukrainian logistics hub – and were only 8km (5 miles) from the city.

the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, travelled to Kyiv and held talks with Zelenskiy.

Blinken, speaking at a press conference afterwards, gave his strongest hint yet that the US will soon lift some restrictions on the use of US-supplied long-range weapons on key military targets within Russia. British government sources say approval will be given to allow similar strikes with UK Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

In Moscow, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, claimed that a US-UK decision on targeting Russian territory “was taken long ago”. He said Russian forces were successfully pushing the Ukrainian military out of the Kursk area.

The Pentagon spokesperson Lt Col Charlie Dietz said: “The supply of Atacms is finite, and we need to be judicious about where and when they are deployed.”

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