Russia launches counterattack in Kursk

KYIV — Moscow’s forces have launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Thursday.

Kyiv’s surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk provided a month of relative relief for battle-weary Ukrainian troops on the southern front.

However, after the rapid offensive of the first months, Ukrainian forces in Kursk this week faced an unexpected breakthrough of their defenses from the Russian troops.

Russians broke Ukrainian defenses in the northwestern area of Korenevo village and entered Snagost, Ukrainian war mapping project DeepState, affiliated with the Defense Ministry of Ukraine, reported on Tuesday. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, confirmed the breakthrough, adding that Russian forces might have taken back several small settlements.

“Russian forces may intend to temporarily bisect the Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast before beginning a more organized and well-equipped effort to push Ukrainian forces out of Russian territory,” the ISW said.

But Vadym Mysnyk, spokesman of the Ukrainian army command Siversk, responsible for the Kursk operation, refused to confirm or deny a breakthrough. “The operation is ongoing. We do not comment on specific tactical episodes, because it affects the course of the operation,” Mysnyk told POLITICO.

One Ukrainian army brigade said that its forces had already launched a counterattack to the Russians.

“Our units on the west of the Kursk ‘protrusion’ in Snagost now counterattack. Russian attacking units now also actively receiving a blow to the right flank of its attacking units,” the brigade said in a Telegram post.

“During the [last] day, the enemy did not make any offensive actions and was forced to restrain the blow from the south of the Glushkovskiy district. We are waiting for positive news.”

The Kursk incursion has brought some relief to the southern front in Ukraine, Dmytro Lykhoviy, Ukrainian army spokesman responsible for the southern front of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, told POLITICO.

Russians took a number of forces from Kherson and several brigades from Zaporizhzhia region to Kursk and elsewhere, Lykhoviy said.

“This is in line with our Ukrainian plan,” Zelenskyy said when confirming the counteroffensive.