Russia ramps up Kursk campaign as US arms supplies set to wane

Bloomberg News on Mar 8, 2025

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Kremlin forces are racing to drive back and cut off Ukraine’s troops in Russia’s Kursk region in a bid to undermine a bargaining chip in possible peace talks after the U.S. suspended new military aid to Kyiv.

“All units across the entire Kursk front have gone on the attack,” Apti Alaudinov, a Russian military commander, was cited as saying by the Tass news service.

According to the Ukraine’s DeepState open-source map service, Russia sent soldiers through a disused natural gas pipeline in an attempt to deploy behind the Ukrainian front line.

Ukraine’s General Staff said on its Telegram channel that its forces had repelled a dozen attacks in the Kursk region, which borders northeast Ukraine, while 14 clashes were ongoing.

The incursion in Kursk last summer caught the Kremlin off guard and prompted tens of thousands of residents to flee the first foreign military offensive inside Russia since World War II. The attack also saw Ukraine take control of Sudzha — an important gas transportation hub not far from the nations’ border.

Now, the area in Kursk under Ukrainian control has shrunk by nearly one-fifth over less than three weeks, according to DeepState data.

“Russian forces are further intensifying offensive operations in select front-line areas, likely in order to capitalize on any immediate and longer-term battlefield impacts of the cessation of U.S. aid to Ukraine,” the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said in a report on Friday.

The advances advances come as U.S. President Donald Trump pressures Ukraine to move ahead with a peace deal amid signals the Kremlin would be willing to accept a temporary truce under certain conditions.

U.S. and Ukrainian officials are preparing to meet Tuesday in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to improve relations and restore American arms and intelligence to Kyiv, both of which Trump suspended after a White House blowup with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 28.

Ukraine reported widespread missile attacks overnight by Russia, including a strike in the Donetsk region that killed at least 12 people. Russian officials, meanwhile, said a major oil refinery near St. Petersburg was hit by a drone.

Zelenskyy said the latest strikes showed Moscow’s objectives in its invasion of Ukraine are “unchanged.”

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