Star Metro - Zelensky says Ukraine not kicked out of Russia's Kursk

Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since launching its offensive in February 2022.

"Our military continues to actively defend the designated areas of the Kursk and Belgorod regions," Zelensky said on Telegram, adding that the situation remained difficult in many areas including Kursk.

Russia said on Saturday it had captured Gornal, the last settlement that was under Ukrainian control in its border Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a shock offensive in August 2024.

Yet hours later Ukraine's army denied its forces had been forced out, branding Russia's claim as "propaganda tricks".

"The situation on the front lines and the actual activities of the Russian army prove that the current pressure on Russia to end this war is not enough," Zelensky said, calling for increased pressure on Russia to create more opportunities for "real diplomacy".

- Trump meeting -

His comments come a day after Zelensky discussed a potential ceasefire with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral at the Vatican.

After their brief talk in St Peter's Basilica Trump cast doubt over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swathes of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.

The following night, Russia launched drone and missile attacks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.

Russian Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov especially praised the "heroism" of the North Korean soldiers who fought in the Kursk campaign, admitting their participation in the conflict for the first time.

Several Russian military bloggers who closely monitor the conflict said fighting was still ongoing around the forests on the border between Russia and Ukraine.

A local Russian army commander in Kursk also said the army was still conducting operations in the region, according to a state TV broadcast aired on Sunday.

- 'Buffer zone' -

In August 2024, the Ukrainian army rolled on Kursk -- once the site of a key World War II tank battle -- in an unprecedented counter-offensive on Russian soil, which included the seizure of a pumping station through which Russian gas used to flow to Europe.

But Moscow has since then forced Kyiv's soldiers on the defensive, gradually recapturing much of the region.

After Ukraine was temporarily stripped of key US intelligence in March 2025, Russia redoubled its efforts, including through a surprise covert operation using an underground gas pipeline, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Russia has said it will keep advancing in the four Ukrainian regions it claimed to have annexed in 2022 after Kursk's recapture.

And Moscow was planning to create a "buffer zone" in Ukraine's Sumy region, which borders Russia, according to Gerasimov.

Russia holds about 20 percent of Ukraine's territory, including the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.

S.Lapointe--SMC