The Ukrainian president has accused Vladimir Putin of “lying to everyone” about the situation in the Russian province of Kursk and seeking to prolong the war. In an X post on Saturday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s president was lying “about the situation on the ground, especially about what’s happening in the Kursk region”. He said Ukrainian troops were still fending off Russian and North Korean forces in the area but face a potential new attack on Sumy in Ukraine’s north-east. He said Kyiv’s troops were not encircled in Kursk, as has been claimed by Russia, but that Moscow was accumulating forces nearby for a separate strike. “The buildup of Russian forces indicates that Moscow intends to keep ignoring diplomacy,” he said. “It is clear that Russia is prolonging the war.”
Russian troops recaptured the villages of Rubanshchina and Zaoleshenka in the Kursk region, the Moscow’s defence ministry said on Saturday. On Thursday, Russia announced it had regained full control of the town of Sudzha as Ukraine’s forces have been forced to retreat.
