Russian forces recapture villages in Ukraine-held pocket of Kursk region

Russia has taken control of several villages in the Kursk region and claims its forces are close to surrounding thousands of Ukrainian troops fighting on Russian territory.

- Luke Harding

For seven months, Ukraine has controlled a pocket inside western Russia. Last week, Russian and North Korean troops launched a major offensive, shortly after Donald Trump pulled the plug on military support, intelligence and satellite feeds with Kyiv.

Before talks this week between US and Ukrainian representatives in Saudi Arabia, the Russians were closing in on the Ukrainian-held Russian town of Sudzha and had recaptured villages to the north - Staraya, Novaya Sorochina and Malaya Loknya - as well as other small settlements to the immediate east.

There were unconfirmed reports yesterday that some Ukrainian soldiers had been captured amid heavy fighting. The crucial supply road between Sudzha and Ukraine's Sumy region is under constant Russian fire.

Today, Volodymyr Zelenskyy will hold talks with the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh. Tomorrow, a delegation led by Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy's chief of staff, will meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other senior White House officials. Zelenskyy will not take part in the negotiations.

"On our side, we are fully committed to constructive dialogue, and we hope to discuss and agree on the necessary decisions and steps," he wrote on X at the weekend.