Russia wants Kursk back before negotiations. Ukraine isn’t budging.

KYIV — The fight to control some 200 square miles of land in western Russia became even more brutal in recent days as the Kremlin, ahead of possible negotiations with the incoming Trump administration to end the war, appears set on removing Russian land from the equation.

Ukraine has controlled swaths of Russia’s Kursk region since a surprise cross-border incursion in August and — despite having lost around half its initial gains — still maintains a foothold there.

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