LONDON/KYIV >> Thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into Russia’s Kursk region last summer in a shock incursion are nearly surrounded by Russian forces there, in a major blow to Kyiv which hoped to use its presence there as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks.

Russia claimed to retake a key town in the area from Ukrainian forces. Ukraine’s top military commander has said that its forces would continue to “hold the line.”

A Russian service member walks past destroyed buildings in the town of Sudzha, which was recently retaken by Russia's armed forces in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict in the Kursk region, Russia,