Reuters reported that on April 19, General Staff of the Russian army, Mr. Valery Gerasimov, said that the Russian army had taken almost all of the Ukrainian forces out of Russia's Kursk province. Most of the encroached areas have been cleaned up, Gerasimov said.
Speaking at a meeting attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Gerasimov reported that the Moscow military currently controls 1,260 km2 in Kursk province, equivalent to 99.5% of the area previously occupied by Ukraine.
According to him, Ukraine currently only holds about 3 km2 around the villages of Oleshnya and Gornal, located near the Russia-Ukraine border.
On the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry also announced that it had recaptured the village of Oleshnya from Ukrainian forces.
However, according to some sources from the Russian security agency quoted by TASS, the situation in the Gornal has not shown any signs of cooling down as the fierce fighting between Moscow and Kiev forces continues.
In another development, the Moscow Times said Ukraine used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack a car in Kursk, killing a woman, injuring a man and a child. The information was given by the acting Governor of Kursk province, Mr. Alexander Khinshtein.
Since August 2024, Ukraine has launched a large-scale surprise attack on Russia's Kursk region. Observers say the decision by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is aimed at creating a dead-end card in any negotiations to end the conflict.
Also on April 19, in a post on social network X, Mr. Zelensky announced that Ukrainian forces are continuing to operate in the Kursk region and maintain their position.
However, up to now, many international media outlets have commented that the Russian army has re-occupied most of the area that Ukraine had once won in this border area.
In the latest developments, on the evening of April 19 (local time), Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a 30-hour humanitarian ceasefire with Ukraine on the occasion of the holiday.
