Russian President Vladimir Putin phoned on Sunday to senior commanders in the Kursk region, west of Russia, to congratulate them on completing the Ukrainian forces expulsion, according to Russian news agencies citing the Kremlin.

“Putin congratulated them for the victory and thanked them for their heroic work,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the same agencies.

It is noted that the Russian announced on Saturday that Russia regained control of all Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise attack last year.

“The Kiev regime has completely failed,” Putin said.

Putin appeared in footage to receive a report from Russian chief officer Valerie Grasimov, who tells him that the Ukrainian forces have been expelled from the last part of Kursk.

Gerasimov stressed the Russian president and the role played by the North Korean soldiers in Russia’s military successes in the region.

Zelenski: We continue businesses in Kursk

President Volodimir Zelenski said today that the Ukrainian army is continuing its operations in the Russian Kursk region, contradicting Moscow’s announcement yesterday, Saturday, for a complete “liberation” of this border region by Russian troops.

“Our forces continue their defensive operations in the designated zones of (Russian) regions of Kursk and Belgorod,” he said on social media.

Ukrainian army officials described yesterday the statements of the Russian Army General Staff, denouncing the “propaganda” of Moscow on the issue.

Yesterday, several Russian channels in the Telegram watching the evolution of the battles also said that the battles between Russians and Ukrainians continue in the Kursk region.

Kiev forces invaded the Kursk region in August 2024, occupying some pockets.

Vladimir Putin had in the past implied that he was not ready to negotiate for the end of the war, which erupted with the invasion of his forces in Ukraine in February 2022, as long as the Ukrainian forces were not fully expelled from the region.

For several weeks, the Ukrainian troops have retreated from this area of ​​the front, with the Russian army recovering a little bit of ground.

Since August 2024, Ukrainian troops initially occupied hundreds of square kilometers, before the pocket under control has reduced to a small extent in recent days.

Ukrainian leaders had justified this surprise attack by saying that they wanted a new negotiating paper in the event of peace talks.

Volodimir Zelenski recently proposed to Russia to agree on a “exchange” of soil, something Moscow, whose army is promoted elsewhere on the front, categorically rejected.

On the battlefield, the Russian army still bombarded cities and villages of Ukraine, as every day since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.

Today, three people were killed and four others were injured in a Russian bombing in Kostanifka, very close to the front, according to the authorities of the Eastern Donetsk region.