Moscow, Mar 13 : Russian forces have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia's Kursk border region, officials claimed Thursday, as US officials sought the Kremlin's response to a proposed 30-day ceasefire in the three-year war that Ukraine has endorsed. The Russian Defence Ministry's claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment.

The renewed Russian military push and Putin's high-profile visit to his troops came as US President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The US on Tuesday lifted its March 3 suspension of military aid for Kyiv after senior US and Ukrainian officials made progress on how to stop the fighting in talks held in Saudi Arabia. Trump said Wednesday “it's up to Russia now” as his administration presses Moscow to agree to the ceasefire. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday that US negotiators were on their way to Russia, but he wouldn't comment on Moscow's view on the ceasefire proposal. Before the talks start, and they haven't started yet, it would be wrong to talk about it in public,” he told reporters.

Senior US officials say they hope to see Russia stop attacks on Ukraine within the next few days. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News that national security adviser Mike Waltz spoke Wednesday with his Russian counterpart. She also confirmed that Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will head to Moscow for talks with Russian officials, possibly including Putin. By signaling its openness to a ceasefire, Ukraine has presented the Kremlin with a difficult challenge at a time when the Russian military has the upper hand in the war — whether to accept a truce and abandon hopes of making new gains, or reject the offer and risk derailing a cautious rapprochement with Washington.

The Ukrainian army's seven-month foothold inside Russia has been under intense pressure for months from a renewed effort by Russian forces, backed by North Korean troops. Ukraine's daring incursion last August led to the first occupation of Russian soil by foreign troops since World War II and embarrassed the Kremlin. Ukraine launched the raid in a bid to counter the unceasingly glum news from the front line, as well as draw Russian troops away from the battlefield inside Ukraine and gain a bargaining chip in any peace talks. But the incursion didn't significantly change the dynamic of the war. 

/Agencies