Ukraine says Russia has started counter-offensive in its Kursk border region

Ukraine’s cross-border operation raised morale in the country (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

Russia has launched a counter-offensive in its Kursk region to dislodge Ukraine’s forces who stormed across the border five weeks ago and put Russian territory under foreign occupation for the first time since the Second World War, Ukraine’s president said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that Moscow’s forces had recaptured 10 settlements in Kursk and listed their names but did not describe the fighting as a counter-offensive.