President Putin Selamati Commander Of His Troops For "Winning" At Kursk

JAKARTA - Russian President Vladimir Putin called his top commanders at Kursk to congratulate them on the "victory" and the end of operations to expel Ukrainian troops from territory in western Russia, the Russian news agency reported citing a Kremlin statement on Sunday.

Russian troops for months have urged the expulsion of Ukrainian troops who carried out a sudden cross-border attack last August and seized many areas.

"Putin congratulated them for the win and thanked them for their heroic work," the Russian news agency quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Peskov said President Putin spoke to the commander in charge of the Kursk operation and unit commanders who "specially stand out" to them.

Earlier, the RIA state news agency reported that a Russian military commander informed President Putin that "the remains scattered" of the remaining Ukrainian army in the Kursk region would soon be destroyed.

"Currently we have reclaimed the Gornal settlement and remained on its roads, which are completely under our control," the commander said, referring to a village within Russia's borders.

The commander, quoted by RIA, said Russian troops were continuing to clean up the forest areas west and south of Goronal.

On Saturday, President Putin praised what he called a total failure of attacks by Ukrainian forces in Kursk, after Russia said it had been expelled from the last village they controlled.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who wrote about frontline operations on Sunday, said Ukrainian troops remained active in Kursk and in neighboring Russia, Belgorod.

Citing a report by the Ukrainian Military Commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi, President Zelensky said Russian forces had launched nearly 70 attacks on Ukraine's position on Sunday, with conditions still "difficult" in many areas.

Most of the fighting, President Zelensky said, continues in three eastern front sectors: Pokrovsk, which Russia has been targeting for months, as well as Kramatorsk and Lyman.

It is known that Russian troops began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and now controls about 20 percent of Ukraine's territory.