Last summer, Ukrainian troops mounted a shock-and-awe land grab inside Russia’s Kursk region, marking the first foreign invasion of Russian soil since the Second World War.

Kyiv’s men, equipped with Western tanks and artillery systems, caught their enemy off guard as they stormed across the border into Russia on Aug 6.

Within days, Ukraine held 1,300 sq km of Russian territory, including Sudzha, a key town for Russian gas shipments to Europe.

The size of the territory may have paled in comparison to what Moscow held inside Ukraine, but the newly formed bridgehead gave Kyiv what it believed to be a key bargaining chip heading into any talks over the end of the war.

But with negotiations over a potential peace settlement actually beginning – with help from Donald Trump – Ukraine’s grip over its salient in Kursk is slipping at an alarming rate.

On Thursday, Vladimir Putin, unusually dressed in military fatigues, visited the area as his defence ministry claimed to have wrestled Sudzha back from Ukraine after nearly eight months.