Moscow's troops "recently advanced" in the area of Kursk controlled by Ukrainian soldiers, U.S.-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Saturday.
Kyiv launched a surprise incursion into Kursk in early August, and Russia has struggled to peel back Ukraine's most significant advance into Russian territory since the start of full-scale war in February 2022, and the first ground attacks by another country on Russian soil since World War II.
Ukraine's efforts focused on the area around the town of Sudzha, which Kyiv claimed just over a week after the incursion got underway, and toward Korenevo, a town to the northwest. Russia has retaken chunks of territory close to Korenevo, with Ukraine still holding Sudzha.
Geolocated footage shows Russia has advanced to the southeast of Korenevo in recent days, the ISW said.
An unnamed senior military source in Kyiv's General Staff told Reuters in an article published on Saturday that Ukraine had lost more than 40 percent of the territory it controlled in Kursk. At its peak, Ukrainian forces controlled roughly 531 square miles of territory, the source said, adding that this has now dropped to approximately 309 square miles.
Russia has deployed just under 60,000 troops to Kursk, the source said, adding that Moscow was increasing its counterattacks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky estimated in mid-November that around 50,000 Russian troops were fighting in Kursk. Kyiv's top soldier, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, recently said roughly 45,000 of Moscow's soldiers were concentrated in the region, but that the Kremlin was funneling more personnel to the area of fighting.
Ukraine has acknowledged Russia has launched counteroffensive pushes designed to peel back Kyiv's grip in the region in recent months. But despite this, Russia has been slow to push opposition forces back to the border, while it has consistently made gains in Ukraine's east, toward the strategic transit hub of Pokrovsk.
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