Ukrainian paratroopers fighting in Russia's Kursk region have "broken through" into a new, unspecified section of the Russian border, a Ukrainian brigade said Monday as battles rage on inside Russia and various parts of eastern Ukraine.
Fighters with Ukraine's 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade "have broken through a section of the Russian border," the brigade said in a post to the messaging app Telegram.
"This is the second successful operation to break through the Russian border since the start of the operation in the Kursk region of Russia," the brigade said. The Ukrainian brigade did not specify where along the border fighters had "broken through" or when the reported operation took place.
Newsweek could not independently verify the battlefield reports. The Russian and Ukrainian defense ministries have been contacted by email for comment.
Ukraine is more than six weeks into its surprise incursion into Kursk, which borders the country's northeast. Kyiv said in early September that it had captured 100 settlements and around 500 square miles of territory as Moscow sluggishly attempted to fend off the advance.
In recent weeks, Western analysts have suggested that Russia has reclaimed territory south of Korenovo, which, along with the town of Sudzha to the southeast, was a focus of Ukraine's push.
The 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade shared footage it said showed Ukrainian troops entering into "enemy territory" and the "first battles in the border area."
There is not a lot of information available about this reported breakthrough, but the aim would likely be the same as that for the nearly seven-week-old push in Kursk, said Nick Reynolds, a research fellow for land warfare at the U.K.-based Royal United Services Institute think tank.
Ukraine would hope to use Kursk as a bargaining chip, placing pressure on Russia in possible negotiations, while bolstering Ukrainian morale and showing that Kyiv can still go on the offensive, Reynolds told Newsweek.
If Ukraine can hold the line in the east, where Russia has been steadily advancing for months, another push in Kursk could make sense, he said.
Russia's government said on Monday that Russian forces had stopped "two attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to break through the border of the Russian Federation in the direction of the settlement of Novy Put."
Novy Put sits right on the Russian border with Ukraine, south of the village of Veseloe and the border town of Glushkovo. It is southwest of Korenovo and west of Sudzha.
One prominent Russian military blogger said Ukraine was battling Russian forces around Glushkovo on Monday morning, using "more and more" NATO-provided equipment.
A blogger said a German-made Leopard tank operated by Ukraine was "destroyed" near Veseloe, which is southwest of Glushkovo. Battles were reported around Nikolayevo-Darino, south of Korenovo, and just northeast of the settlement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this past Friday that the offensive against Kursk had pulled approximately 40,000 Russian soldiers into the area.
