Russia claims retaking two more villages in Kursk border region

Russia said Saturday it had retaken two more villages from Ukrainian forces in its Kursk border region where it has launched an offensive to wrest back seized territory.

Moscow has pushed this week to retake a large part of the land that Ukraine originally captured in its western Kursk region.

The Russian defence ministry said troops took control over the villages of Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina — north and west of the town of Sudzha, the main town that Moscow reclaimed this week.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin a day earlier called on embattled Ukrainian troops in Kursk to "surrender", while his US counterpart Donald Trump urged the Kremlin to spare their lives.

"If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment," Putin said Friday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that the situation in Kursk is "obviously very difficult".

The Ukrainian army on Saturday published a map on social media that showed its troops had retreated west towards the border.

Drones repelled

Ukraine said Saturday it had downed 130 Russian-launched drones across the country at night, as international efforts to end the three-year war intensify.

Kiev's air force said the Iranian-made Shahed drones were downed over 14 regions and that Moscow had also attacked with two ballistic missiles.

Kiev also said that the number of wounded in a Russian strike a day earlier on Zelenskyy's hometown Kryvy Rig rose to 14.

On Friday, officials said Russia attacked a residential area of the central Ukrainian city — regularly targeted throughout Moscow's more than three-year invasion.

"Fourteen people were wounded, among them two children," the head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Sergiy Lysak, said on Telegram.

Ukrainian prosecutors said the wounded children were a two-year-old and a 15-year-old.

Lysak said the missile attack destroyed over a dozen large apartment buildings and 10 private houses.

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Source: TRT