Ukrainian troops in Kursk region ‘not at risk of encirclement yet,’ top commander says
There is currently no imminent threat of Ukrainian troops being encircled in Russia’s Kursk region, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said.
“For now, our units in the Kursk region are not at risk of encirclement. They are taking timely measures to establish more advantageous defensive positions,” he said.
Syrskyi added that some of the settlements “mentioned in Russian propaganda reports” have, in reality, been completely destroyed by Russian forces. He also said Ukrainian troops have been successfully “eliminating” Russian sabotage groups attempting to infiltrate Ukrainian territory.
Moscow launched an aggressive push in the Kursk region late last week, after Washington stopped sharing military intelligence with Ukraine. On March 8 and 9, Russian forces retook nine settlements, followed by five more on March 10.
On March 8, Ukraine’s General Staff reported that Russian assault units had attempted to reach Sudzha by crawling through a gas pipeline. According to Ukrainian military officials, the raid did not catch them by surprise, and Russian units were targeted with missile and artillery strikes.
