Russia makes gains against Ukraine in Kursk as Trump envoy arrives in Moscow

Ahead of talks with U.S. officials over a proposed 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a defiant military message when he made a rare appearance in a camouflage uniform to mark Russian advances against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of southern Russia.

Ukraine’s seven-month-old occupation of a sliver of Russian territory in the Kursk region may be nearing an end as Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, said the operation to evict enemy forces was in its final stages.

With the Russian Defense Ministry announcing Thursday the retaking of Sudzha — the largest town under Ukrainian control — Moscow looks set to strip Kyiv of a territorial bargaining chip that it has hoped to use in peace talks that are being brokered by the Trump administration.

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