Ukraine says Russia has started a counteroffensive in its Kursk border region

Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia has launched “counter-offensive actions” in its Kursk region to dislodge Ukrainian forces who stormed across the border five weeks ago and put Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since World War II. Zelenskyy’s comments in Kyiv on Thursday came shortly after Russia’s Defense Ministry said that Moscow’s forces had recaptured 10 settlements in Kursk and listed their names. Ukraine’s leader says his country’s troops anticipated such a response. Ukraine launched its daring incursion into Kursk on Aug. 6, partly in the hope that Russia would divert its troops there from Donetsk in eastern Ukraine where a push by the Russian army is threatening to overrun a belt of key defensive strongholds.