The fall of Sudzha would represent a huge blow to Ukraine’s efforts to hold onto its Kursk salient.
Seven months after Ukraine captured Sudzha in the surprise invasion of Russia’s Kursk region, its hold on this key city appears to be nearing an end. While one Russian media outlet claims Sudzha has fallen, Ukrainian military sources we spoke with, as well as Russian and Ukrainian media and Telegram channels, say there is still fighting going on there, though the prospects for Ukraine keeping the city aren’t good.
The loss of Sudzha, located less than six miles from the border, would mark a major turning point because it sits along an important supply route and has served as a key staging area and command and control node for Ukraine’s forces. Its precarious status raises the question of just how much longer this incursion can last, as both Ukrainian and Russian sources say Moscow’s troops have retaken several towns in Kursk over the past 24 hours. You can read more about the Russian effort to enter Sudzha through an abandoned gas pipeline in our recent story here.
“Russian Armed Forces have taken full control of Sudzha,” the Russian SHOTmedia outlet reported, “from the ground. Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters have left the city. As we have learned, there is currently a small number of Ukrainian troops in the city, but they are all retreating.
Ukrainian and Georgian sources tell us that the fighting in Sudzha is ongoing.
“Ukrainian troops have not yet retreated from Sudzha city,” a retired high-ranking Ukrainian officer told The War Zone Wednesday morning. “Fighting is going on at the western and northern parts of the city right now.”
“There are still some Ukrainian troops there,” Mamuka Mamulashvili, commander of the Georgian Legion, told us. He estimated that Ukrainian forces still hold about a third of the roughly 500 square miles of Kursk they held at the peak of its invasion. However, an infographic from Voice of America, which you can see below, suggests Ukraine’s salient is even smaller.
Ian Matveev, an antiwar Russian military analyst, suggested the end of this operation is at hand.
“The Ukrainian Armed Forces are leaving the Kursk region – today it will be completely liberated,” he stated Wednesday on X. “It is also clear that the Ukrainians have preserved their main forces and have not allowed the defeat at the Kursk bridgehead. The operation that began seven months ago is ending.”
The Georgian source we spoke with offered a different take.
Mamulashvili, the Georgian Legion commander, said his forces were actively reinforcing the Kursk salient.
“We have not left yet, but it does not look good,” Mamulashvili posited.
