As we have explained in the past, for the Ukrainians, Kursk is more than just a piece of land. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sees it as the "key" to a peace agreement with Russia in which the two sides would exchange territories. Kyiv would give Kursk back to Moscow, and Moscow would give some Ukrainian territory to Kyiv.
For this purpose, the Ukrainian military leadership is willing to feed the "meat grinder" of Kursk for many more weeks. So far, the losses have been tremendous, at least according to reports from Russian defense sources.
Even Ukrainian commandos don’t escape in Kursk
"The bloodbath of the invaders continues relentlessly in the Russian border region of Kursk. Several enemy assault groups attempted to infiltrate the area of the settlement of Cherkaskaya Konopelka via the Sirovshchina-Olekh road but were blocked and neutralized by our forces," reported the Russian site SvPressa.
In the area of the village of Kurilovka, the Ukrainian armed forces are said to have deployed special forces units to stop the Russian advance, at least temporarily. However, it seems that despite the deployment of enemy commandos, Russian forces continue to steadily advance in this sector of the front, reported an independent military analyst.
Even the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that "Russian troops managed to repel five Ukrainian attacks in the area of the village of Kurilovka, south of the town of Sundzha. Russian military observers report that Russian forces have secured a bridgehead on the western bank of the Sundzha River, south of the settlement."
At the same time, fierce battles are taking place in the western part of Kursk, in the southern and western parts of the settlement of Sverdlokovo. Several sources claim that the Russian army currently controls about 80% of this village.
The Russian channel Military Chronicle on Telegram reports that 'every day the Ukrainian army's control zone in Kursk is shrinking.'
