Russia has moved troops from the isolated European enclave Kaliningrad to the border region of Kursk to help defend against a Ukrainian incursion, according to Lithuania.
“We are now seeing how they are redeploying their troops from Kaliningrad to Kursk,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Laurynas Kasciunas told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a Tuesday meeting.
“I say to the Lithuanian people, look at how Ukrainians are fighting for you,” he continued. “They are achieving very important things, and this is a really good move, and it is a completely new page.”
The Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania along the Baltic Coast is home to Russia’s Baltic Fleet. Kaliningrad was estimated to have some 30,000 troops stationed there before the war in Ukraine, but some of them have already been moved to the battlefield.
It’s not clear how many were redeployed to Kursk, where Ukrainian troops caught Russia by surprise in an Aug. 6 counterattack into the Russian region.
One key goal of the Ukrainian attack in Kursk is to redirect Russian troops from the frontlines of eastern Ukraine to ease up pressure there, but there’s no sign Moscow has ordered a major redeployment from those regions.
Still, a Ukrainian army spokesperson, Dmytro Lykhova, told a local media outlet Tuesday that Russia has redeployed troops from the southern Zaporizhizhia region in Ukraine, though the “intensity” of combat in the region had not changed.
The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing a U.S. official, that Russia had redeployed some troops from Ukraine, though there were few details.
Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder would not comment on specifics at a Tuesday briefing.
“It’s something that we’re keeping an eye on,” he said of potential Russian redeployments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who met Wednesday with the acting governor of Kaliningrad, Alexei Besprozvannykh, said Monday that he would not let Kyiv scale back Russia’s gains in eastern Ukraine.
“The pace of offensive operations by the Russian Armed Forces, volunteers, and veterans has not only remained steady but has actually increased by fifty percent,” Putin said at the meeting. “Our troops are advancing along the entire front.”
Ukraine has captured almost 400 square miles in Kursk and taken some 74 settlements in the Russian border region, according to Ukrainian officials. Troops are continuing to advance as Russia struggles to push back.
