MOSCOW, March 11, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Russia's army said Tuesday it had retaken 12 settlements from Ukraine in the western Kursk region, where Moscow has launched a rapid counteroffensive to take back land seized by Kyiv last year.

Ukraine has been losing ground in the Russian border region -- swathes of which it has held since August 2024 and which it hoped to use as leverage in peace negotiations -- for several weeks. 

The announcement came as Ukrainian and US diplomats sat down for talks on how to end the conflict in Saudi Arabia. 

"The units of the 'North' group of troops during the offensive liberated 12 settlements ... and more than 100 square kilometres of the Kursk region territory," Russia's defence ministry said in a statement. 

Moscow said it had retaken the villages of Argonom, Bogdanovka, Bondarevka, Dmitryukov, Zazulevka, Ivashkovsky, Kolmakov, Kubatkin, Martynovka, Mikhaylovka, Pravda and Yuzhny. 

The villages lie to the north, east and south of Sudzha -- the main regional town under Ukrainian control. 

Russia's advance in the area comes as the US has cut off Ukraine's access to intelligence sharing and satellite data in a bid to force it to negotiate. 

Ukraine said Monday that it was reinforcing its troops in Kursk region, insisting there was no threat of encirclement of its troops. 

Russian military bloggers have said Moscow's forces have crawled through underground tunnels and pipelines -- including gas pipes -- near Sudzha to surprise Ukrainian forces. 

Russian state television published footage of a soldier in a gas mask with an air pack on his back squeezing into a small hole from an underground tunnel to enter a pipeline, with another soldier saying it has been effective as "the enemy cannot see us."