KYIV (AFP) — Russia’s counteroffensive to retake Ukrainian-held territory in the Kursk region has been “stopped,” a spokesperson from Ukraine’s military administration there told Agence France-Presse on Wednesday, after Moscow said it was beginning to repel the surprise incursion.

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

“The situation was stabilized 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.

The Russian defense ministry in a statement said that its troops were still on the offensive in some parts of Kursk and were repelling Ukrainian attacks in other areas of the region.

Regarding the Russian front, Dmytrashkivsky said there were “several thousand” Russian civilians still living in areas occupied by Ukrainian troops.

“In some settlements, there are more than 100 people, more than 200, more than 500,” he said.

Russia has not said how many of its civilians remain in the Kyiv-controlled areas, saying only that around 130,000 have fled.

Dmytrashkivsky also claimed that Russian strikes on the area as it tries to recapture the land have killed “23 civilians” since the end of August, saying that they are “dying with the Ukrainian military.”

He said the civilians are “not allowed to leave” because “the situation must be controlled” but are allowed to “move around” the area.

They can “visit each other, eat there, unite somewhere, dig potatoes now, work in the garden,” Dmytrashkivsky said.

He said the only way the civilians could be allowed to leave for Russian-controlled territory would be if Ukraine and Russia “agree, through international organisations that deal with these issues, to open a green corridor under the supervision of observers.”