Russia on Sunday battled to drive the last Ukrainian soldiers from western Russia after a seven-month incursion by Ukraine that aimed to distract Moscow’s forces, gain a bargaining chip and rile President Vladimir Putin.

It was gathered that in one of the most striking battles of the three-year-old Ukraine war, Ukrainian forces smashed their way across Russia’s western border in Kursk last August, marking the biggest attack on sovereign Russian territory since the Nazi invasion of 1941.

However, a lightning offensive this month has reportedly reduced the area under Ukrainian control to about 110 square km down from the more than 1,368 square km claimed by Kyiv last year.

One of the most influential pro-Russian military bloggers, Yuri Podolyaka, said Russia had pushed back Ukrainian forces to the border in some areas, though intense battles were underway and that Ukrainian forces were fighting back as they retreated.

Battlefield maps from both Ukraine and Russia showed two joined pockets of Ukrainian forces on the Russian side of the border in Kursk.

Russia said it was clearing large numbers of mines in the area.

Recall that after a public appeal by US President Donald Trump last week to spare surrounded Ukrainian troops, Putin said on Friday that Russia would guarantee the lives of Ukrainian troops in the region if they surrendered.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that his troops were not surrounded but sounded the alarm over what he said could be a new Russian attack on Ukraine’s northeast Sumy region, which borders Kursk.

The influential Two Majors pro-Russian military blogger said the battlefield gains of Russian forces had allowed Russia to threaten Sumy, but warned that Ukrainian forces had been bolstering defences there for some time.

Putin has accused Ukrainian troops of carrying out crimes against civilians in Kursk, something Kyiv, however, denied

Ukraine said as many as 11,000 North Korean troops are fighting with Russia in Kursk, though Russia and North Korea have refused to give any details on North Korean troops there.

It was further learned that the fierce battle for the Kursk region has framed efforts by Trump to end what he says is a bloodbath war that could escalate into World War Three.

Russian troops battle last Ukrainian forces in Kursk region