Russian military chief says Ukrainian troops are almost fully ejected from Kursk

20/4/2025 6:24

Moscow's troops have driven out Ukrainian forces from nearly all of Russia's western Kursk region, Russia's military chief Valery Gerasimov said on Saturday.



"The bulk of the area where the invasion took place has now been cleared," Gerasimov told President Vladimir Putin in a televised meeting.



"It's 1,260 square km, 99.5%."



Russia has been trying to eject Ukrainian forces from Kursk since August last year after Kyiv's troops mounted a surprise incursion that embarrassed Putin and which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hoped would give him a bargaining chip in any future talks to end the war.



Gerasimov updated Putin on the battlefield developments, which Reuters could not independently verify, shortly before the Kremlin chief announced a unilateral Easter ceasefire in Ukraine.