Russian commander says situation in Belgorod 'under control' while battles continue in Kursk

By Lucy Papachristou

The situation in Russia's Belgorod region is "under control" after the Ukrainian army tried to break through the border two weeks ago, Russian commander Apti Alaudinov was quoted by the state RIA news agency as saying on Friday.

Just as Ukrainian forces are battling to keep their grip on a sliver of Russia's Kursk region they captured last year, they have tried to stage a little-publicised incursion into the adjacent Belgorod region, according to Russian military bloggers.

Alaudinov, commander of Chechnya's Akhmat special forces, told Russian state television that Moscow's forces were "clearing areas" of Ukrainian troops in Belgorod.

"In general, our situation is quite good," RIA cited him as saying. "The enemy does not tire of throwing in new and new meat, although he sees every day that he suffers terrible losses and cannot achieve results."

Reuters could not independently verify Alaudinov's report.

'Two Majors', a pro-Russian war blogger with over 1.2 million subscribers, wrote on Friday that fighting was continuing around Demidovka and Popovka, villages in Belgorod lying just over the border from Ukraine.

"The enemy continues to attempt to break through the forest belts," Two Majors wrote, adding that Ukraine was also attacking four other towns near the frontier in Belgorod.

On Friday Vyacheslav Gladkov, Belgorod's governor, reported multiple Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks over the past day on those four towns - Murom, Malinovka, Masychevo and Shebekino - as well as several others. One man was injured in Shebekino after a drone detonated in a parking lot, Gladkov said.

Separately, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday battles were still underway to the north in the Kursk region, where Moscow's forces are fighting to eject Ukrainian troops from their last remaining major stronghold.

Russian war bloggers have reported that more than 300 Ukrainian soldiers are hunkered down in a monastery in Kursk from which they are trying to defend their positions in a village called Guevo.

Reuters was unable to independently verify any of the war bloggers' assertions.

Should Moscow rout Ukraine from Kursk entirely, it would deliver a significant blow to Kyiv, whose army seized a chunk of the region last August to use as a future bargaining chip in talks to end the war.