Ukraine official claims Russian advance in Kursk has been 'stopped'

Russia's counteroffensive to retake Ukrainian-held territory in the Kursk region has been "stopped", a spokesman from Ukraine's military administration there told AFP on Wednesday, after Moscow said it was beginning to repel the surprise incursion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said that Kiev has "fully prepared" its "victory plan" to end the war with Russia, which he has said he will discuss with US leader Joe Biden.

Russia earlier this month said it had taken back several villages from Ukraine in the region, where Kiev has held on to swathes of land since its shock offensive began more than a month ago.

"They tried to attack from the flanks, but they were stopped there," spokesman Oleksiy Dmytrashkivsky from Ukraine's military administration in Kursk told AFP.

"The situation was stabilised and today everything is under control, they are not successful," he said.

A Ukrainian official later played down the claim.

"The Russian operation in the Kursk region is still ongoing, so it is too early to say that it has failed completely," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

  Zelensky touts 'victory plan' 

Zelensky later struck a determined tone in his daily evening address.

"Today we can say that our victory plan has been fully prepared — all the points," he said.

"Everything has been worked out. The most important thing now is the determination to implement it."

The Ukrainian leader last week said that he would discuss the plan with Biden "this month".

He added that "there cannot be any alternative to peace, any freezing of the war or any other manipulations that will simply move the Russian aggression to another stage. We need...