CNN
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Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed his country’s forces have recaptured Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, though Kyiv insists its troops are fiercely battling to preserve their 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. If confirmed, the capture 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 soldiers 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.”
By midday on Sunday, Russia launched almost 70 attacks on Ukrainian positions, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, citing the country’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi.
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.
Kyiv mounts calls for ‘full and unconditional’ ceasefire
Zelensky reiterated calls for a “full and unconditional” ceasefire after a series of war talks held among Ukrainian, US and Russian leaders in recent days – as tensions between the three countries thwarted efforts to achieve an agreement.
“Ukraine continues to defend its independence and its land in battles,” Zelensky said on Sunday, following a briefing with a senior military aide about the battleground in Kursk.
“The situation on the frontline and the real activity of the Russian army prove that the current global pressure on Russia is insufficient to bring this war to an end,” he added.
If Putin’s claims are true, hopes of using Kursk as a bargaining counter are now gone. Ukraine’s retreat also has the potential to dent Kyiv’s political clout as well as its military’s morale after three years of war, with intense efforts underway towards finding peace.
The coming week will be “very critical” in determining whether the US can attempt to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, according to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio – suggesting President Donald Trump’s deadline for reaching a deal was swiftly approaching.
“This week is going to be a really important week in which we have to make a determination about whether this is an endeavor that we want to continue to be involved in, or if it’s time to sort of focus on some other issues that are equally, if not more, important,” Rubio said on NBC.
“There are reasons to be optimistic, but there are reasons to be realistic,” he added. “We’re close, but we’re not close enough.”
Rubio’s tempered remarks followed a whirlwind week of diplomacy that saw Trump accuse 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 Kevin Liptak and Victoria Butenko contributed to this report.