The Kremlin claims that the Ukrainian forces have been expelled from Corsak

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The Kremlin claimed that all Ukrainian forces were expelled from the Russian Kursk region, and for the first time they confirmed the role of North Korean soldiers in the fighting.

On Saturday, the Chief of General Staff Valery Girassemov told President Vladimir Putin that the Ukraine forces inside Kursk had been repelled, nine months after its sudden incursion – the first of which was a foreign army in Russian territory since World War II. Gerasimov claimed that Ukraine suffered from “great losses.”

“The adventure of the Kiev regime has completely failed,” Putin said in a carefully released video on government television.

Ukraine contradicts Russia from events; A senior official told the Financial Times that Putin’s claim was “nonsense”. The official insisted that Kiev’s forces are still holding in the Corsak area, although the amount of lands controlled it fell to about 30 square kilometers from about 1,300 square kilometers seized in August.

The Kremlin’s demand came when US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Folodimir Zellinsky met shortly in the Vatican before the funeral of Pope Francis. This was the first time that they saw each other personally since their explosive meeting at the Oval Office in February.

Trump said that Russia and Ukraine were “very close” to agreeing on an agreement after his special envoy Steve Witakov Putin met in Moscow on Friday in a fourth round of talks.

But it seems that Putin suggests on Saturday that he was determined to continue the war. “The complete defeat of the enemy in the Kursk border area creates conditions for more successful measures by our forces in other important areas of the front,” he said.

Gerasimov praised the North Korean forces for their courage, saying that they fought a “shoulder to a shoulder” with their Russian comrades. More than 12,000 soldiers were deployed from North Korea in the region, according to Ukrainian, South Korean and American governments. Moscow has not officially recognized its existence.

The Ukrainian General Staff said that Russia’s allegations “are not compatible with reality”, describing them as a “propaganda trick” and “wishful thinking”.

She said, “The defensive process … in certain areas in the Kursk region continues,” she said. “The operational situation is difficult, but our units still communicate certain sites and carry out custom tasks, while causing effective fire damage to the enemy of all kinds of weapons, including active defense tactics.”

He said that five enemy attacks were caught and that another ongoing battle, adding that there was no threat to encourage its units, which are still present in the neighboring Beljuod region in Russia. This process is small compared to Corsak, however; Zelenskyy said that the goal is to create a “buffer zone” to prevent attacks between the region in the future from the region.

Ukraine was shocked by Russia last August when its forces stormed the border to Kursk, seized the element of surprise to give war to Russia, and took hundreds of war prisoners and a piece of land, including the city of Soda.

The army was ready to bear the risks in an attempt to seize the momentum in the battlefield. While strengthening the morale and led to the release of hundreds of prisoners of the Ukrainian war, Zelinski’s goal of adhering to the series with the confusion of a compromise segment.

On Saturday, Russian officials gave North Korea a lot of credit in its role in pushing Ukraine’s forces, as Girasseoff praised its forces to “starring” in the battle.

North Korean soldiers have found a success in attacking Ukrainian front lines in artillery -backed and air support. Soon they became known for their design and loyalty to their leader, Kim Jong Un. Ukraine seized two, who are still imprisoned in Kyiv.

Pyongyang has also supplied Moscow with more than 200 self -area of ​​the M1989 and updated multiple missile systems that have been updated 240 mm to fight in the Kursk region, according to the common Ukrainian intelligence with FT.

“We will never forget our friends,” said Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, on social media in praise of Pyongyang’s contribution to the war.