Ukraine to keep fighting in Kursk as long as needed, top army commander says

(Reuters) - Ukraine's top army commander said on Thursday that Kyiv's troops will keep operating in Russia's Kursk region as long as needed and that fighting continued in and around the town of Sudzha.

"Despite the increased pressure of the Russian and North Korean army, we will hold the defence in Kursk region as long as it is appropriate and necessary," Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Facebook.

He added that units were manoeuvring to "more favourable positions if necessary" to save soldiers' lives. Active fighting continued in the outskirts of the town of Sudzha and around it, according to Syrskyi.

Ukraine stormed into Kursk in August and hoped to use land seized there as a bargaining chip in any negotiations to end the three-year-old full-scale Russian invasion.

Syrskyi said the Russian military was suffering huge personnel and equipment losses while trying to achieve "political gains" by attempting to oust Ukrainian troops.

Sudzha is the largest settlement that Ukraine seized in Kursk, and Ukraine's Deep State open-source mapping project showed earlier on Wednesday that Kyiv was no longer in full control of it.

"The enemy is using assault units of airborne troops and special operations forces to break through our defences, oust our troops out of the Kursk region and move fighting to the territory of Sumy and Kharkiv regions," Syrskyi added.

Ukraine's general staff said clashes on the Kursk front were among the most intense in the conflict, and Kyiv's military repelled five Russian attacks and nine more continued.

Russia stepped up attacks in the area in recent days, and President Vladimir Putin has visited the region on Wednesday saying that Moscow's forces should completely regain control over it as soon as possible.

(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa, Editing by Franklin Paul and Cynthia Osterman)