The Russian Defense Ministry said on Saturday its troops retook the villages of Viktorovka, Nikolaevka and Staraya Sorochina in Russia's western Kursk region from Ukrainian forces.

Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.

The Russian army has been fighting to eject Ukrainian troops from Kursk since last August, when Kyiv's forces staged a lightning incursion over the border and seized a swath of Russian territory.

Open source maps showed this week that Ukraine's positions have deteriorated sharply in Kursk, where its troops are nearly surrounded by Russian forces.

Two Majors, a pro-Russian war blogger, wrote on Telegram on Saturday that Russian troops had begun an assault on Sudzha, a major town about 6 miles from the border, and that the situation for Ukrainian troops in Kursk was "close to critical."