Russia said it had captured a village near Kursk on Sunday, closing in further on a key exit route for 10,000 Ukraine troops fighting in Russia.

The Kremlin’s defence ministry said its forces had “liberated” the small village of Novenke in a cross-border raid.

Russia is putting intense pressure on the territory held by Ukraine in Kursk. The offensive comes days after Donald Trump cut intelligence sharing to Kyiv that has left its forces partially blind to Russian attacks.

Russian special forces crawled 15km through a disused gas pipeline to ambush Ukraine in the region. Russia also said that its forces had taken back the village of Lebedevka nearby, and said it was “continuing to rout Ukrainian units”.

However, on Saturday Kyiv denied any major breakthrough, saying its forces were destroying small groups of Russian troops trying to cross the border.