Russia claims it has regained full control of Kursk from Ukraine

During a video conference meeting with Putin on Saturday, Gerasimov said: “Today, the last settlement in the Kursk region, the village of Gornal, has been liberated from Ukrainian forces.”

He praised what he described as the “heroism” of North Korean troops who had “provided significant assistance in defeating the group of Ukrainian armed forces”.

“The Kyiv regime’s adventure has completely failed,” Putin told Gerasimov, claiming that it would pave the way for further Russian advances on other fronts.

Responding in a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian military’s general staff said the situation on the battlefield was “difficult” but insisted its forces were still holding positions in Kursk and continuing an incursion in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Ukraine’s incursion was launched last August as an attempt to create a buffer zone on the border between the two countries that would prevent Russian forces from being deployed on Ukraine’s eastern front line.

It comes a day after US President Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal” on ending the war, following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Putin this week.

Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican on Saturday. Zelensky told the BBC on Friday that he was pushing for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before any deal was struck.

Kyiv has faced growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of any deal with Moscow to end fighting, which could reportedly include giving up the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Ukraine had hoped it could use the land it had seized in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which launched its full invasion in 2022 and has currently controls around 20% of Ukraine’s internationally-recognised territory.

Russia says its troops are now at the border with Ukraine’s Sumy region, located next to Kursk.