Russia declared Thursday that its troops were close to eliminating the last Ukrainian holdout in the Kursk region, where Kyiv’s forces have maintained a foothold for over seven months.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces were pounding the remaining Ukrainian positions after capturing three more settlements, including the town of Sudzha, which is located near the border with Ukraine and lies on a road that Kyiv had used to resupply its forces.
Ukraine's top army commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said on Wednesday that Kyiv's troops would keep operating in Kursk as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around Sudzha.
Russian war correspondent Yevgeny Poddubny, reporting from Sudzha, said: "The town is constantly being hit by enemy artillery, but focal resistance has been suppressed."
Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield accounts from either side.
Ukraine sprang one of the biggest shocks of the war on Aug. 6 last year by storming across the border and grabbing a chunk of territory that Kyiv hoped to use as a bargaining chip in peace talks.
But Russia's forces, supported by troops from its ally North Korea, have gradually clawed back the lost ground, mounting what appears to be a final push just as the U.S. tries to get Moscow to agree to a proposed cease-fire in the three-year war.
President Vladimir Putin, donning combat fatigues, visited Kursk on Wednesday and ordered his commanders to swiftly finish the job.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that Russian troops would take "as long as necessary to save the maximum number of lives of our military and civilians. But there is no doubt that the Kursk region will be liberated soon enough."
Video from Sudzha, published by Russian media and military bloggers, showed scenes of devastation from the seven months of fighting, with burnt-out vehicles, roofless buildings and mountains of rubble.
Regional Gov. Alexander Khinshtein said 120 Russian civilians had been rescued from the town and evacuated.
