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Russian forces have retaken four villages over the past week in the southwestern Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops captured large swaths of territory last summer, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Friday.
The army said its forces liberated the village of Novaya Sorochina and repelled four Ukrainian counterattacks in the process. The advances, which were previously reported by pro-war bloggers, suggest that Russian troops are moving closer to securing a key road leading to the border town of Sudzha.
In August, Sudzha became a strategic flashpoint as Ukrainian forces launched a cross-border incursion into the Kursk region. The town had a population of just under 5,000 before Ukraine’s offensive.
Earlier this week, Russia’s military announced it had recaptured the nearby villages of Pogrebki and Gorlovka, located just north of Novaya Sorochina. Further south, toward Sudzha, it said its troops also took back the village of Nikolsky.
The DeepState military blog, which has ties to Ukraine’s army, estimates that Ukrainian forces still control around 396 square kilometers (153 square miles) in the Kursk region.
Following Kyiv’s incursion in early August, Ukraine seized 1,268 square kilometers (490 square miles) of territory in the region, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.
A senior Russian military official said last week that Moscow’s forces have since reclaimed nearly two-thirds of that land.
