Kursk region Russian forces speed up counteroffensive

Russian forces are trying to cross the border and gain a foothold in Ukraine's Sumy province as they press ahead with a counteroffensive aiming to eliminate the last of Kyiv's positions in the Russian Kursk region.

- Dan Sabbagh

A Ukrainian state border guard spokesperson, Andrii Demchenko, told national television that Russian forces were trying to advance around the Ukrainian village of Novenke.

"These are small assault units, composed of a few people. They try to penetrate our territory, accumulate forces, and advance further into Ukraine, probably to cut off logistical routes," he said.

The Russian efforts indicate that Moscow does not want to halt its counteroffensive at the national border, should it manage to recapture the rest of the shrinking Ukrainian pocket around the village of Sudzha.

Though Moscow has been trying to expel the Ukrainian forces since last August, after Kyiv seized around 1,000 sq km of Russian territory in a surprise attack, one expert group noted its rate of success had dramatically improved in the past few days.

"Russian forces are collapsing the northern part of the Ukrainian salient in Kursk oblast," the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote on Sunday night, before suggesting that the change in frontline position may be linked to the withdrawals of US support for Ukraine announced by the White House last week.

"The temporal correlation between the suspension of US intelligence sharing with Ukraine and the start of Russia's collapse of the Ukrainian Kursk salient is noteworthy," the ISW said, though it added that the conclusion was tentative.