Russia’s top military leaders as well as President Vladimir Putin have on Saturday declared the full liberation of Russia’s Kursk region, after Ukrainian forces invaded and occupied huge swathes of it starting last August.
The final fight was for the village of Gornal, which lies on the Ukrainian border. Fighting on the vicinity of the settlement became fierce earlier this month, and the tide was definitely in Moscow forces’ favor after the capture of a key monastery complex. Russian forces accused the Ukrainian army of using the monastery as a military forward operating position.
Putin in a Saturday video address thanked Russian service members “who took part in defeating the neo-Nazi groups” who for over six months held hundreds of square kilometers of sovereign Russian territory. He declared the utter ‘failure’ of the invasion attempt.
Hellbound and Down 