Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his country has recaptured Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, though Kyiv insists its troops are fiercely battling to preserve its foothold in the territory.
“The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin said Saturday, congratulating the Russian forces that he said defeated the Ukrainian military in the region in what would be a symbolic boost for the Kremlin at a crucial point in the war with the US expressing growing impatience with the Russian leader for stalling on peace talks.
Senior Ukrainian military officials have disputed Putin’s claims, warning Moscow had not yet regained control of those battlegrounds – and that Kyiv’s soldier maintained a heavy presence in the region.
“Russia has not yet liberated the Kursk region by 100%,” Oleh Shyriaiev, an army commander, said in a voice message on Sunday. He told CNN that Russian forces “are pressing” and “trying to counter-attack.”
“We are working, fighting,” he added. “These are not territorial successes… But successes in destroying enemy armoured vehicles and personnel.”
CNN is unable to independently verify battlefield reports but both sides have been struggling to make gains elsewhere on the frontlines.
Shyriaiev’s 225th regiment was among the first units to have entered Kursk in August – when Ukraine launched its shock incursion, swiftly capturing territory in what was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II.
Since then, Russia, with support from North Korean soldiers, has been fighting to oust Ukraine’s forces from its borders, while Kyiv had poured precious resources into holding onto its territory there, with the view of using it as a key bargaining chip in any peace talks. The operation was also launched to relieve pressure from the embattled eastern frontline.
In his address, Putin said recapturing Kursk “creates conditions for further successful actions of our troops in other important areas of the front.”
In a post on Telegram, Valery Gerasimov, chief of the Russian General Staff, thanked the North Korean soldiers, praising their “high professionalism, steadfastness, courage and heroism in battle.”
Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports found that about 12,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to fight in Russia.
Local authorities are working to restore “peaceful life” in Kursk, Gerasimov said, as the region is demined and unexploded ordnance is destroyed. Forest areas, basements and abandoned buildings are being checked for any remaining Ukrainian soldiers, he added.
If Putin’s claims are true, hopes of using Kursk as a bargaining counter are now gone and Ukraine’s retreat has the potential to dent Kyiv’s political clout as well as its military’s morale after three years of war and with intense efforts underway towards finding peace.
Though the US has attempted to broker peace talks between Ukraine and Russia over recent months, tensions between the leaders of the three countries have meant that very little has come to fruition.
Another whirlwind week of diplomacy saw US President Donald Trump accuse Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of making it “so difficult to settle this war” for refusing to accept Russia’s annexation of Crimea but later saying Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal.”
On Saturday morning, at the funeral of the late Pope Francis in the Vatican, Zelensky briefly met with Trump for talks on potential peace negotiations. A White House spokesperson called the meeting “productive,” while Zelensky thanked Trump for the meeting, writing on X that it “has potential to become historic, if we achieve joint results.”
A few hours later on Saturday afternoon, Trump raised the prospect of applying new sanctions on Russia for launching a deadly wave of attacks on Kyiv last week.
“There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
This story has been updated.
CNN’s Daria Tarasova-Markina, Kevin Liptak and Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.