Ukraine is losing the little bit of leverage it might have had left amid discussions toward preparing negotiations with Moscow. Russia's Kursk is now fast being retaken, and Ukrainian forces are folding, as on Wednesday Russian troops raised their flags over the key town of Sudzha .

The central square of the town in the southwestern Kursk region was scene of where Russia’s Airborne Troops published a short aerial video showing soldiers unfurling a Russian flag as well as military unit banners. Other state media outlets subsequently featured the footage. Newsweek has underscored that Ukraine is fast "losing its trump card."

Moscow has been focusing its forces on to regaining control around Sudzha in recent days, having retaken 12 settlements in the border region earlier this week.

Fighting is said to still be ongoing, but Moscow forces have asserted control over the center. Ukrainian media also acknowledges the following:

Russian troops have launched an offensive on the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha in Russia's Kursk Oblast, entering the settlement, the DeepState monitoring group, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and the Russian state news agency TASS claimed on March 12. Fighting in the town is reportedly ongoing.

...According to DeepState, Russian forces have entered the eastern part of Sudzha and are entrenching their positions. TASS published purported drone footage claiming that Russian troops had entered the town center and raised a Russian flag.

War bloggers have been closely monitoring the fight for control of Sudzha, with Ruslan Leviev of the war monitor Conflict Intelligence Team describing that Ukrainian troops have been in steady retreat from the entire region.

"We’ve seen that all the areas coming under Russian control have been taken with little to no resistance. The same goes for Sudzha," Leviev said. "Today, we’re seeing them on the opposite side [of the town]. And again, there are no images of any fighting."

"At this point, it’s fair to say that the entire city of Sudzha is now under Russian control," he described of the ground situation. 

While months ago Ukrainian forces occupied several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk region, as of Wednesday that control has shrunk to less than 200 square kilometers (77 square miles), according to the Ukraine-military linked DeepState war tracker.

Video said to be from on the ground in Russia's Sudzha, including interviews with elderly Russians that stayed the whole time:

Recall that in the late last month famous Oval Office blow-up involving Trump, Zelensky, and J.D. Vance - Trump told the Ukrainian leader: "You don't have the cards right now."

That now appears truer than ever, at a moment the Russians are studying the new US-Ukraine proposal for a 30-day truce in order to jump-start direct negotiations to end the war.