Kyiv is reinforcing its troops involved in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Moscow’s forces have been regaining ground, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Monday. The move comes ahead of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials in Saudi Arabia, as President Trump pushes for a quick ceasefire in the three-year war launched by Russia.
Ukrainian soldiers launched their audacious offensive into Russia’s Kursk region in August, catching even their Western allies off guard and dealing an embarrassing blow to the Kremlin. Ukraine had hoped that controlling the Russian territory would give it leverage during any future talks with Moscow. Recently, however, Ukraine has been losing ground there: Last month, they lost two-thirds of the territory they once controlled in Kursk.
“I made a decision to strengthen our grouping with the necessary forces and means, including electronic warfare and unmanned components,” Syrsky wrote in a post on social media on Monday.
Moscow has claimed it has taken back control of a number of villages, including in an accelerated advance over recent days. It has also claimed to have captured a village inside Ukraine’s Sumy region, Novenke, which is not far from a vital resupply route for the Ukrainian forces still in Kursk.
Those advances have come in the wake of President Trump’s decision to pause U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine — a decision the White House has defended as tough, but necessary to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept a truce along the vague lines Mr. Trump envisions.
Syrsky asserted on Monday that the dynamics of fighting between the Kursk and Sumy regions were “under the control of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.”
He also addressed concerns circulating in Ukrainian media that Ukrainian troops there could be surrounded by Russian fighters, saying: “Currently, there is no threat of encirclement of our units in the Kursk region.”
He conceded, however, that Ukrainian forces were buckling under mounting Russian pressure and were having to fall back to positions that are easier to hold.
“The units are taking timely measures to maneuver to favorable defense lines,” he said.
Haley Ott
contributed to this report.
