By Marc Santora
Ukrainian troops have initiated an offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, as stated by officials from both sides on Sunday, apparently striving to reclaim strategic advantage amidst ongoing intense Russian assaults throughout eastern Ukraine.
Last summer, Ukraine captured approximately 500 square miles in the Kursk area during an unexpected offensive, although Russia subsequently recaptured nearly half of that territory in the ensuing months.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on Sunday that Ukrainian forces commenced a significant new offensive involving tanks, mine-clearing equipment, and at least a dozen armored vehicles, claiming to have repulsed the attack.
Ukrainian soldiers contacted via phone in the area refrained from discussing ongoing operations, merely stating that Ukraine was on the offensive in certain parts of the Kursk region, where intense fighting continues. The Ukrainian military leadership announced late Sunday that there had been 42 “combat engagements” in the region over the last 24 hours, with 12 still underway.
The veracity of claims from either side could not be independently confirmed, and the extent of Ukrainian offensives remained ambiguous.
Military analysts from Ukraine and the West suggested that these attacks might be a strategic misdirection, aiming to compel Russian troops to reinforce their defenses in the region, thereby potentially weakening their positions on the front lines within Ukrainian territory.
In the Donetsk area of eastern Ukraine, Russian forces continue to achieve costly yet steady progress. They are persistently wearing down resistance around the town of Kurakhove and are also engaged in efforts to encircle the larger city of Pokrovsk, according to statements from Ukrainian soldiers and officials.
Russian troops have now advanced to within 1 mile of a crucial supply route leading to Pokrovsk, which has historically served as an essential logistics hub for Ukrainian forces in the area.
Some U.S. officials originally voiced doubts regarding the viability of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August, fearing it may overly tax already stretched and undersized brigades attempting to maintain defensive lines in eastern Ukraine.
However, as Russian casualties rose, perspectives among some of these U.S. officials began to shift.
Currently, Ukraine holds less than half of the land it captured during last summer’s Kursk offensive, yet in recent weeks, it has managed to impede Russian progress despite numerous counterattacks from Russian forces, including those supported by thousands of North Korean soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to downplay the importance of the Kursk incursion, which marks the first ground invasion of Russia since World War II’s conclusion.
While asserting that it is the military’s “sacred duty” to expel Ukrainian forces, he has recently refrained from providing a timeline for when this may occur.
“We will surely drive them out,” Putin stated during his annual press conference in December. “I cannot currently provide a specific date for this.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy remarked that Moscow continues to incur significant losses in its attempts to displace the Ukrainians.
“In battles occurring today and yesterday near a single village — Makhnovka in the Kursk region — the Russian army sustained casualties amounting to nearly a battalion of infantry, including North Korean troops and Russian airborne soldiers,” Zelenskyy noted on Saturday evening. A battalion typically consists of 600 to 800 soldiers.
Although it was impossible to validate his assertion, the Pentagon recently indicated that North Korean forces were suffering significant losses on the Kursk front, with over 1,000 reported as either killed or injured in just a few weeks.
RIA Novosti, a Russian state news outlet, claimed that around 340 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed or wounded in the Kursk area in the preceding 24 hours. This assertion also could not be independently verified, and the news outlet, citing the Russian Defense Ministry, did not report on Russian casualties.
Zelenskyy stated that maintaining control of territory in Kursk grants Ukraine a “very strong trump card” in any future negotiations with Moscow.
President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to swiftly bring an end to the conflict upon taking office, without clarifying how he intends to achieve this.
