Russia said Sunday that Ukraine has launched a new counterattack in the western Kursk region aimed at repelling Russian and North Korean troops trying to retake territory that Kyiv’s forces captured last August.
The Russian defense ministry said Kyiv deployed “an assault group consisting of two tanks, a mine clearing vehicle, and twelve armored combat vehicles with paratroops towards Berdin village.”
Moscow said its “artillery and aviation of the North group of (Russian) forces defeated the assault group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” although news accounts said the outcome of the fighting was uncertain.
“Russia is getting what it deserves,” Ukrainian presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said commenting on the recent reports.
The head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, said on Telegram that “defense forces are working” in the area.
“In the Kursk region, the Russians are very worried because they were attacked from several directions, and it was a surprise for them,” he said.
Ukrainian and Western accounts say that Russia has deployed about 11,000 North Korean troops in the Kursk region, although Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Ukraine took the land August 6 and has held on since then even as Russia has gained territory in Ukraine’s eastern region and currently holds about a fifth of the country as the war nears the three-year mark next month. If Ukraine can hold on to the Kursk territory, it could give Kyiv a bargaining chip in any eventual peace talks with Russia.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he would resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict before he is inaugurated on January 20, but he has not said how and there is no indication of any settlement in the coming days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses in the Kursk fighting.
“In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroops,” Zelenskyy said. “This is significant.”
Zelenskyy provided no specific details. A battalion can vary in size but is generally made up of several hundred troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in response to a question at his marathon annual phone-in last month, said that Russia would force Ukrainian forces out of Kursk but declined to set a date for when this would happen.
On the battlefront Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 61 out of 103 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, the other 42 were reported lost — likely due to electronic jamming. Russia said it had destroyed five Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
Some material in this report came from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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