Russia says it has retaken Kursk's biggest town from Ukraine as US
awaits Putin's ceasefire response
[March 13, 2025]
By The Associated Press
Russian forces have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in
Russia's Kursk border region, officials claimed Thursday, as U.S.
officials sought the Kremlin's response to a proposed 30-day ceasefire
in the three-year war that Ukraine has endorsed.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of
Sudzha, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in
Kursk and wore military fatigues, could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim.
The renewed Russian military push and Putin's high-profile visit to his
troops came as U.S. President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end
to the war. The U.S. on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of
military aid for Kyiv after senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials made
progress on how to stop the fighting during talks held in Saudi Arabia.
Trump said Wednesday that “it’s up to Russia now” as his administration
presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. The U.S. president has made
veiled threats to hit Russia with new sanctions if it won’t engage with
peace efforts.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that U.S. negotiators were
on their way to Russia, but he wouldn’t comment on Moscow’s view of the
ceasefire proposal.
“Before the talks start, and they haven’t started yet, it would be wrong
to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.
Senior U.S. officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on
Ukraine within the next few days.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national
security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian
counterpart. She also confirmed that Trump’s special envoy, Steve
Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly
including Putin.
By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the
Kremlin with a dilemma at a time when the Russian military has the upper
hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making
new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious
rapprochement with Washington.
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In this image made from video released by the Russian Presidential
Press Service, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, Russian President
Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Russian Chief of General
Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov as he visits military headquarters in
the Kursk region of Russia. (Russian Presidential Press Service via
AP)
The Ukrainian army’s foothold inside Russia has been under intense
pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed
by North Korean troops. Ukraine's daring incursion last August led
to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since
World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin.
Speaking to commanders Wednesday, Putin said he expected the
military “to completely free the Kursk region from the enemy in the
nearest future.”
Putin added that in the future “it’s necessary to think about
creating a security zone alongside the state border,” in a signal
that Moscow could try to expand its territorial gains by capturing
parts of Ukraine’s neighboring Sumy region. That idea could
complicate a ceasefire deal.
Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum
news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from
the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any
peace talks. But the incursion didn’t significantly change the
dynamic of the war.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank,
assessed late Wednesday that Russian forces were in control of
Sudzha.
Ukraine’s top military head, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said late
Wednesday that Russian aviation had carried out an unprecedented
number of strikes on Kursk and that as a result Sudzha had been
almost completely destroyed. He did not comment on whether Ukraine
still controlled the settlement but said it was “maneuvering
(troops) to more advantageous lines.”
Meanwhile, Major General Dmytro Krasylnykov, commander of Ukraine’s
Northern Operational Command, which includes the Kursk region, was
dismissed from his post, he told Ukrainian media outlet Suspilne on
Wednesday. He told the outlet he was not given a reason for his
dismissal, saying “I’m guessing, but I don’t want to talk about it
yet.”
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