Days after Ukrainian troops seized part of Russia’s Kursk region in a surprise attack, President Vladimir Putin told defense officials their “main objective” was to repel the invasion. Six months later,

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank tracking the frontline between Russia and Ukraine, said there was geolocated footage showing Ukrainian forces had advanced towards the villages of Makhnovka and Cherkasskaya Konopelka, both of which are southeast of Sudzha, the main city controlled by Kyiv’s troops.

Authorities in Moscow and Kyiv are in discussions about opening a humanitarian corridor for civilians stranded behind Ukrainian lines in the partially occupied Kursk region, Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner Tatiana Moskalkovasaid Tuesday.