Russia said on Sunday that Ukraine had launched a new counter-offensive in the western Kursk region aimed at repelling Russian and North Korean troops who are trying to retake the area captured by Kiev’s forces last August. .
The Russian Defense Ministry said Kiev deployed “an assault group consisting of two tanks, a mine-clearing vehicle and twelve armored fighting vehicles with paratroops towards the village of Berdin.”
Moscow said that its “artillery and aviation of the Northern Group of (Russian) Forces defeated the assault group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” although news accounts said the outcome of the battle was uncertain.
Ukrainian Presidential Chief of Staff Andrey Yermak commented on recent reports, saying “Russia is getting what it deserves.”
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram that “defense forces are operating” in the area.
“In the Kursk area, the Russians are very worried because they were attacked from multiple directions, and it was a surprise to them,” he said.
Ukrainian and Western accounts say Russia has deployed about 11,000 North Korean troops to the Kursk area, although Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Ukraine captured the country on August 6 and Russia has since gained territory in Ukraine’s east and currently holds about a fifth of the country as the war approaches the three-year mark next month. If Ukraine can capture the Kursk region, it could give Kiev a bargaining chip in any eventual peace talks with Russia.
US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict before being sworn in on January 20, but has not specified how and has given no sign of a deal in the coming days.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in the Kursk battle.
“Yesterday and today in the fighting near Makhnovka, just a village in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost a battalion of North Korean infantrymen and Russian paratroops,” Zelensky said. “This is important.”
Zelensky did not provide any specific details. The size of a battalion can vary but is usually made up of several hundred soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in response to a question at his marathon annual phone-in last month that Russia would pull Ukrainian forces out of Kursk, but declined to set a date for when that would happen.
On the battlefield on Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 61 of the 103 drones launched by Russia in the overnight attack, with another 42 reported lost – possibly due to electronic jamming. Russia said it had destroyed five Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
Some content in this report comes from Reuters and Agence France-Presse.