A serviceman moves through a trench in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, 6 November 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE / Oleg Petrasyuk 

Russian troops have started digging trenches deep inside the Kursk region amid the continuing Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) incursion into Russian territory, according to OSINTtechnical, an X account about open-source intelligence.

OSINTtechnical collected satellite images of the trenches, suggesting that they could reflect the amount of territory Russia was willing allow Ukraine to temporarily occupy in the Kursk region.

Noting that the trenches under construction were located between 45–75 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, OSINTtechnical said that any Russian decision to fall back to those positions “would cede Ukraine a massive amount of territory”.

On Sunday, the BBC reported that Russian troops were building defensive lines around the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, with the AFU reportedly just 50 kilometres away from the facility. According to BBC Verify, new networks of trenches, the nearest of which is just 8 kilometres from the nuclear power plant, can be seen on satellite images of the area.

The unprecedented AFU cross-border offensive in Russia’s Kursk and Belgorod regions is now in its second week, with bluster from the Kremlin so far not being reflected by significant changes on the ground.

According to AFU Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, as of Tuesday evening, Ukrainian troops control 74 villages in the Kursk region. Acting Kursk Governor Alexey Smirnov, however, said on Monday that the Ukrainian military controlled just 28 villages.