The Ukrainian Armed Forces' (UAF) invasion of the Kursk region has forced Russia to redeploy troops from Kaliningrad, according to Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas.
"I tell the Lithuanian people: look at how the Ukrainians are fighting for you, because their fight is forcing Russia to pull troops from Kaliningrad. We even call it the 'demilitarization' of Kaliningrad," Kasčiūnas said during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Russia has also started withdrawing some troops from Ukraine to send them to Kursk, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources among American officials. However, it remains unclear how many combat units Russia will ultimately redeploy to the Kursk region.
UAF spokesperson Dmitry Lyukhovsky told Politico that the number of troops redeployed from the occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions is "relatively small" at the moment.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has not officially commented on the redeployment of troops from Kaliningrad or occupied Ukrainian regions.
The UAF invaded the Kursk region on August 6 and, within a week of fighting, secured control over about 1000 square kilometers of territory, according to Ukrainian Army Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that as of August 13, Ukrainian forces had captured 74 settlements in the Kursk region and taken hundreds of Russian soldiers prisoner.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry emphasized that Kyiv does not intend to annex the occupied Russian territories. The UAF's attack on the Kursk region is solely aimed at protecting Ukrainian civilians who are regularly subjected to shelling, according to Foreign Ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tikhiy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the situation as a "major provocation." Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov promised the president that "the operation will conclude with the defeat of the enemy and a return to the state border." Since then, the Russian Ministry of Defense has repeatedly claimed that Russian forces are successfully preventing the UAF from advancing further into the Kursk region.
