Ukraine war briefing: Russia retakes two villages in Kursk as counteroffensive continues, Moscow says

Russia said on Monday that its forces had retaken control of two villages in its western Kursk region from Ukraine, continuing what Moscow says is a significant counter-offensive there. Russian forces have been battling Ukrainian troops in Kursk region since 6 August, when Kyiv surprised Moscow with the biggest foreign attack on Russian soil since the second world war and subsequently seized 100 villages over an area of more than 1,300 sq km. The Russian claim could not be independently verified on Monday.

Russia also ordered the evacuation of more villages close to the Ukrainian border in the Kursk region on Monday . The reason for the border evacuations was unclear, but came days after Moscow launched its counteroffensive. Authorities have decided to order the “obligatory evacuation of settlements in the Rylsky and Khomutovsky districts that are within a 15km (nine-mile) zone adjacent to the border with Ukraine,” Kursk region governor Alexei Smirnov said on Telegram. There are dozens of villages and towns within this radius.

Ukraine on Monday said it had asked the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to verify the situation in areas of Kursk it has seized . “I instructed the Ukrainian foreign ministry to officially invite the UN and ICRC to join humanitarian efforts in the Kursk region,” foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media. The UN said on Monday that it stood ready to assess and verify the situation in the Kursk region but only with Moscow’s blessing.

The outgoing head of Nato, Jens Stoltenberg, said on Monday he welcomed talks on Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russian territory, but any decision on the issue would have to be made by individual allies . Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has been pleading with allies for months to let Ukraine fire western missiles including long-range US Atacms and British Storm Shadows deep into Russia to limit Moscow’s ability to launch attacks. British prime minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden held talks in Washington on Friday on whether to allow Kyiv to use the long-range missiles against targets in Russia but no decision was publicly announced.

The Finnish government is happy for Sweden to lead the establishment of Nato land forces in Finland to boost defences against neighbouring Russia, the two Nordic countries said on Monday. Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked a historic policy U-turn in previously militarily non-aligned Finland and Sweden, which joined Nato in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

Ukraine added the director of a controversial war documentary to a national security blacklist on Monday, saying it spread “Russian propaganda” about Moscow’s invasion . Russians at War, directed by Russian-Canadian film-maker Anastasia Trofimova, features interviews with troops fighting on the frontline in Ukraine. Since its debut at Venice earlier this month, it has sparked controversy with some denouncing the film as an attempt to whitewash and justify Moscow’s invasion.

The trial of a French citizen arrested in Russia on charges of unlawfully collecting information on military issues started on Monday but was quickly adjourned for a month . Laurent Vinatier, arrested in Moscow in June , had earlier pleaded guilty, setting the stage for a fast-track trial without a detailed examination of evidence. Russia has previously used “foreign agent” charges to target Russian citizens and domestic critics of the Kremlin including activists, campaigners and independent journalists. Vinatier is an adviser with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Switzerland-based nongovernmental organisation. The NGO in June said it was doing “everything possible to assist” him. Human rights activists have criticised the law and other recent legislation as part of a Kremlin crackdown on independent media and political activists intended to stifle criticism of its actions in Ukraine. Soon after the trial opened on Monday, the judge adjourned the hearing until 14 October when prosecutors will declare the sentence they will seek. Vinatier’s lawyer, Aleksey Sinitsyn, said the trial was adjourned because the prosecution needed more time to prepare for final arguments. If convicted, Vinatier could face up to five years in prison.

Kyiv on Monday denied links to a man accused of trying to assassinate former US president Donald Trump , after it emerged that the suspect was a supporter of Ukraine who had said he wanted to recruit foreign volunteers to fight there. Media interviews and social media posts showed that the reported suspect, Ryan Routh, 58, was a staunch supporter of Ukraine who had travelled there after Russia’s 2022 invasion. Ukrainian officials said they had nothing to do with him, and accused Moscow of seizing on the link for propaganda purposes. The Kremlin, for its part, implied there was a link between the assassination attempt and US support for Kyiv, saying “playing with fire has its consequences”.