Ukrainian forces reportedly launched a counteroffensive into Russia’s Kursk region on Monday, marking a significant turnaround after Moscow previously claimed to have expelled them last month.
Russian war bloggers said opposing troops had fired missiles, crossed minefields and smashed through the border this morning.
‘The enemy used rockets to destroy bridges overnight and launched a morning assault with armored units,’ stated the war blogger known as ‘RVvoenkor’ on the messaging app Telegram.
‘Mine-clearing vehicles have begun creating paths through minefields, paving the way for armored units carrying troops. A fierce battle is underway at the border.’
The local governor also said Ukrainian attacks had killed three people in the contested border region.
Russia’s top general said last month that Kyiv’s forces had been pushed out of the Kursk region, ending a months-long incursion that shifted leverage in the war.
Ukraine says its forces still have a foothold in Kursk, after staging an assault in August to gain advantage in peace talks and complicate Russian momentum in Ukraine.Â
Reports of a renewed attack emerged days after Russia said its forces were trying to create a ‘security strip’ on the border to prevent another Ukrainian incursion.
Another assault would be humiliating for Moscow as it prepares for its Victory Day celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
There was no immediate comment from either Russia or Ukraine.Â
Video circulating online purported to show an armoured vehicle being destroyed in Kursk
Russian channels claimed Russian forces had destroyed several vehicles this morning
Russian servicemen walking along at an area in the Kursk region, Russia, 14 March
Kursk’s governor appeared to confirm the incursion, reporting that three people had been killed in the region on Monday.
‘A Ukrainian FPV-drone attacked a Lada Largus car… unfortunately as a result of the hit two women were killed,’ Alexander Khinstein said in a post on Telegram.
In a separate incident, a 53-year-old man was killed in his car when an explosive device was dropped onto it, Khinstein added.
Such an assault would come at a crucial time with Russia still demanding territorial concessions – and making progress in other regions of Ukraine.
Ukraine has ruled out yielding annexed lands, and the mere suggestion from Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, that it could give up territory sparked outrage in Ukraine.
The former heavyweight boxer ultimately reversed his position last week, stating that ‘territorial concessions contradict our national interests and we must fight against their implementation until the last’.Â
Last year’s incursion into Kursk had given Ukraine vital bargaining power, with Russia still occupying around a fifth of its territory.
Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said today that despite being pushed back, the military had achieved ‘most’ of its goals in showing its capabilities and preventing Russia from launching offensives elsewhere.
August’s incursion was facilitated by the Biden administration relaxing its position on Kyiv using US-supplied ATACMS missiles to strike deep into Russia – granted following reports Moscow was bolstering its ranks with North Korean troops.
But material support has dried up since Donald Trump became president in the United States. His administration also said it would no longer mediate in Russia-Ukraine peace talks last week, with both sides unable to agree to terms.
Trump did make a rare concession, however, approving the first arms export to Ukraine since he came to office – an export worth around $50mn (£38mn).
Allies are now said to be discussing supplying additional Patriot air defence systems to Kyiv, with the U.S. and Greece among the potential supplies, a source told Reuters.
The American position on Ukraine has eased somewhat since the signing of a key minerals deal at the end of April and what the White House hailed as a ‘very productive’ meeting between Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral on April 26.
A serviceman of Special Police Battalion attaches a mine to a Vampire combat drone before flying over positions of Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine April 29, 2025
A Ukrainian tank passes by a burning car near the Sumy region of Ukraine, August 14, 2024
Trump, who pledged to swiftly negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine shortly after retaking office, said over the weekend that he and his advisors have had ‘very good discussions’ about Russia and Ukraine in recent days.
While both Russia and Ukraine have made overtures to seeking peace, both sides are yet to agree to terms. Kyiv seeks assurances Moscow will not try to invade again, while Moscow demands important swathes of the invaded country.
The minerals deal, allowing U.S. investment in extracting minerals and rare earths, would likely confound Russian claims to contested territories.Â
With both sides at an impasse, the Kremlin’s rhetoric has ramped up in recent days.
Russian President Vladimir Putin told state media over the weekend that Moscow still has the ‘strength and means’ to bring its war to a ‘logical conclusion’.Â
Speaking to Rossiya 1 on Sunday, Putin reiterated that domestic support for the war was behind him, adding that he ‘is the state’.
He argued Russia was a country of ‘moral and ethical values’ based on ‘the family, the state and the future of Russia’.
Putin also accused the West of ‘deceiving’ Russia over the 2015 Minsk agreements, a failed attempt to end the Donbas war.
‘Putin’s statements throughout the documentary indicate that Putin likely does not intend to slow offensive operations or transition to defensive operations in Ukraine and instead is attempting to ideologically prepare domestic Russian society for a long war,’ the American research group Institute for the Study of War assessed.
Putin did say there would be ‘no need’ to use nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict, caveating: ‘I hope they will not be required’.
In November, Russia amended its nuclear doctrine to lower the threshold for a nuclear strike in response to conventional attacks.Â
Russian soldiers ride on a self-propelled gun in Russia’s Kursk region, March 2025
A photo shared by the Russian Defence Ministry purports to show abandoned Ukrainian ammunition in the Kursk region of Russia, in March 2025Â
Despite renewed vows to fight on from the Kremlin, Russian troops on the ground report being weighed down by the prolonged conflict.
A commander of a Russian airborne assault brigade told the TASS state news agency that Ukrainian troops fighting in Sumy were demoralised.
‘We have disorganised their command system,’ the commander was quoted as saying.
Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov said last Tuesday that Russia was having little success in carving out a buffer zone in the region, but acknowledged that four border villages in the region – including Zhuravka – were in a ‘grey zone’ due to Russian attacks.
Deep State, a Ukrainian open-source data project, indicated about 82 sq km of the Sumy region are in a contested zone.
Separately, the Russian defence ministry said that its troops had seized four villages in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv regions over the past week.
Ahead of Victory Day celebrations, a renewed incursion into Kursk threatens to further undermine morale in Russia.
Zelenskyy urged world leaders attending events that Russia could orchestrate provocations including ‘arson, bombings and so on only to blame us’.
‘Our position is very simple for all countries traveling to Russia on May 9: We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,’ he told reporters.
