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Ukraine said on Tuesday its forces were “commencing new offensive actions” in Russia’s western Kursk region, in its first substantive remarks two days after Russian reports of a renewed Ukrainian thrust in the area.
Ukraine first seized part of the Kursk region in a surprise incursion last August, and it has held territory there for five months despite losing some ground. The Russian defence ministry said on Sunday that Kyiv had launched a new counter-attack.
On Tuesday, Ukraine’s general staff, which keeps a tight lid on information out of the area for the security of its operation there, said Kyiv’s military had hit a Russian command post near the Kursk region’s settlement of Belaya.
The strike and other recent operations in the region were coordinated with Ukrainian ground forces who “are currently commencing new offensive operations” against Russian troops, it said.
The military later edited out any mention of a new attack in the Telegram statement, replacing the phrase with the much vaguer “combat operations”. It provided no explanation.
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Russia’s defence ministry, which has characterised the Ukrainian counter-attack as bungled over the last two days, said in a statement that its troops had carried out strikes on Ukrainian units in the Kursk region.