Russia’s top military leaders as well as President Vladimir Putin have on Saturday declared the full liberation of Russia’s Kursk region, after Ukrainian forces invaded and occupied huge swathes of it starting last August.
The final fight was for the village of Gornal, which lies on the Ukrainian border. Fighting on the vicinity of the settlement became fierce earlier this month, and the tide was definitely in Moscow forces’ favor after the capture of a key monastery complex. Russian forces accused the Ukrainian army of using the monastery as a military forward operating position.
Putin in a Saturday video address thanked Russian service members “who took part in defeating the neo-Nazi groups” who for over six months held hundreds of square kilometers of sovereign Russian territory. He declared the utter ‘failure’ of the invasion attempt.
“The Kiev regime’s adventure has completely failed, and the huge losses suffered by the enemy, including among the most combat-ready, trained and equipped, including by Western models of equipment… will certainly be reflected along the entire line of combat contact,” he said.
Chief of the general staff Gen. Valery V. Gerasimov, informed Putin that the military had “completed the defeat of the Ukrainian armed forces that attacked the Kursk region.”
At the height of the cross-border offensive which began last August, Ukraine’s military had seized just over 530 square miles, but regional reports beginning last weekend said that significant figure was down to less than just 20 square miles. Gornal was the last Ukrainian holdout in Russian territory.
President Putin’s video announcement:
‘I congratulate all personnel of all military units that took part in the defeat of neo-Nazi formations that invaded Kursk’ — Putin
‘The defeat of the neo-Nazi regime is approaching’ https://t.co/qEfZI7b4gE pic.twitter.com/bZImKeVHtW
— RT (@RT_com) April 26, 2025
The operation to retake Kursk had clearly become more highly prioritized by the Kremlin over the last couple months, and likely Putin wanted to achieve its full liberation quickly as talks with the US are underway in order to avoid negotiating an exchange of territory. What little leverage Zelensky had regarding Kursk has now been effectively quashed.
The timing seems intentional as the White House has admitted that Zelensky holds none of the cards. This without doubt puts Moscow in even more control both on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.
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