KYIV – Russia’s counter-offensive to retake territory captured by Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region has been “stopped”, a spokesman from Ukraine’s military administration set up in the area told AFP yesterday.
Russia earlier this month said it had seized several villages back from Ukraine in the Kursk region, where Kyiv has held on to swathes of land since its surprise incursion in early August.

“They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there,” spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky told AFP.
“The situation was stabilised, and today everything is under control, they are not successful,” he said.
Dmytrashkivsky also said there were “several thousand” Russian civilians in areas occupied by Ukrainian troops.

“In some settlements, there are more than 100 people, more than 200, more than 500,” he said.
Russia has not said how many of its civilians remain in the Kyiv-controlled areas, saying only that around 130,000 have fled.
The Ukrainian military official admitted “some minor success” by Moscow.

“The Russians entered one of the settlements. They started fighting for another settlement, but that was it,” he said.
AFP was not able to verify these claims.
Dmytrashkivsky also claimed that Russian strikes on the area as it tries to re-seize the land have killed “23 civilians” since the end of August, saying they are “dying with the Ukrainian military.”

He said the civilians are “not allowed to leave” because “the situation must be controlled”, but are allowed to “move around” the area.
They can “visit each other, eat there, unite somewhere, dig potatoes now, work in the garden,” Dmytrashkivsky said.
The area held by Ukraine has been described as forested and largely rural small settlements.

He said the only way that the civilians could be allowed to leave to Russian-controlled territory would be if Ukraine and Russia “agree, through international organisations that deal with these issues, to open a green corridor under the supervision of observers.”

Kyiv this week invited the UN to verify the situation of the area it holds in the Kursk region, infuriating Moscow.
Dmytrashkivsky said food into the area is brought from the neighbouring Ukrainian Sumy region.

“The Sumy regional administration allocates funds for bread on a weekly basis. 

The armed forces provide water, the administration gives food packages,” he said.
“Nothing works there, no shops, no pharmacy, nothing.” 

– Nampa/AFP