MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have begun a significant counter-offensive against Ukrainian troops who smashed their way into western Russia last month, and have taken some territory back, pro-Moscow war bloggers and a senior Russian commander said.
Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two, bursting through the border into the region of Kursk with thousands of troops supported by swarms of drones and heavy weaponry, including Western-made arms.
Major General Apti Alaudinov, who commands Chechnya's Akhmat special forces who are fighting in Kursk, said that Russian forces had taken back control over about 10 settlements in Kursk, TASS reported.
"The situation is good for us," said Alaudinov, who is also deputy head of the Russian defence ministry's military-political department, adding that Russian forces had gone on the offensive.
"A total of about 10 settlements in the Kursk region have been liberated," he said.
Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield reports due to reporting restrictions on both sides of the war. Russian defence ministry reports about the fighting gave little information. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that his forces controlled 100 settlements in Kursk region over an area of more than 1,300 sq km (500 sq miles).
Yuri Podolyaka, an Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger, and two other influential bloggers - Rybar and the Two Majors - said that Russian forces had begun a significant counter-offensive in Kursk.
"In the Kursk region, the Russian Army launched counter-offensive actions on the western flank of the enemy's wedge, reducing the Ukrainian zone of control near the state border," the Two Majors blog said.
Podolyaka said that Russian forces had taken several villages on the west of the sliver of Russia that Ukraine carved out, pushing Ukrainian forces to the east of the Malaya Loknya River south of Snagost.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
