Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in Russia’s southern Kursk region, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said, as a Kyiv’s forces begin a counter attack.
“In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroops,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address yesterday, calling the losses “significant.”
Ukrainian and Western sources estimate about 11,000 North Korean troops are stationed in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces gained territory after a cross-border incursion in August.
Russian troops repelled two Ukrainian counter-attacks in Kursk on Sunday, the Russian defence ministry said according to state media.
A Russian military blogger has described Ukraine’s movements in Russia’s Kursk region as part of a “last resort counteroffensive”, according to the Telegraph.
The direction of the main counteroffensive is not yet clear and movements in Kursk may be a “diversionary” attack, the Rybar Telegram channel, another Russian military blog, said.
Ukrainian forces are possibly planning wider a counteroffensive on other areas of the frontline, such as in the Donetsk region, where Russia has steadily advanced for months.
The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation confirmed the Kursk attacks.
Ten wounded in Russian attack in Ukraine’s Sumy region
A Russian guided bomb attack yesterday wounded 10 people, including two children, in a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, near the Russian border, local authorities said.
The region borders Russia’s Kursk region and has been regularly shelled by Russian forces for months.
Video posted by president Volodymyr Zelensky showed parts of a building in the village of Svesa reduced to rubble. Rescue teams ferried residents out of the building on stretchers.
“An entire block of the building, from the ground to the fifth floors was destroyed,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. “Neighbouring houses were also damaged.”
Mr Zelensky said guided bomb strikes hit two other villages in Sumy region and also neighbouring Kharkiv region.
Reporter killed in drone strike in eastern Ukraine, says Russian media
A Ukrainian drone strike killed a reporter near the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, Russian media outlet Izvestia said on Saturday.
“The Ukrainian army launched a drone strike on a civilian car carrying Izvestia’s freelance correspondent Alexander Martemyanov,” the daily reported on its Telegram channel.
“The car was located far from the line of contact.”
Izvestia said the car was travelling on a highway linking Donetsk, the Russian-held main town of Donetsk region, and the city of Horlivka to the north.
Blinken heads to Asia, Europe on last expected trip as top US diplomat
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will embark on what is expected to be his final overseas trip in office this weekend, traveling to South Korea, Japan and France.
The State Department announced Friday that Blinken would visit Seoul, Tokyo and Paris beginning Sunday. He will return to Washington early Thursday in time to attend funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter, officials said.
In South Korea, which is in the midst of political turmoil following the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, and Japan, Blinken intends to highlight the expansion of U.S. cooperation with both nations as part of the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
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ICYMI: Russia shoots down eight US-made ATACMS missiles, defence ministry says
Russian forces shot down eight US-made longer-range ATACMS missiles, the defence ministry said on Saturday.
Air defences also shot down 10 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory on Saturday morning, including three over the northern Leningrad region, the ministry added.
The reports have not been independently verified.
More than 86,000 oil-contaminated sand cleared after Black Sea oil spill
Russian rescue workers have cleared more than 86,000 metric tons of contaminated sand and earth after an oil spill in the Black Sea last month, emergency ministries said.
Oil leaked from two ageing tankers after they were hit by a storm in mid-December. One of the tankers sank while another ran aground.
More than 10,000 people have been shovelling viscous fuel oil from sandy beaches around Anapa, a popular summer resort, where environmental groups have reported deaths of sealife including dolphins and porpoises.
Around 2,400 metric tons of oil products spilled into the sea, a smaller spill than was initially feared, Russia’s transport ministry said this week.
Russian forces attacking near Pokrovsk, Ukrainian military says
Russian forces launched attacks near the city of Pokrovsk, a key strategic road and rail hub in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian military said on Saturday.
Capture of Pokrovsk could create serious problems for the Ukrainian army on the eastern front, and may allow Russia to advance its frontline to the west.
“The Pokrovsk direction remains the hottest and there the Russians attacked 34 times (in the past 24 hours) and tried to break through our defences south of Pokrovsk,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces told national television.
Russian forces seek to cut off supply routes to Ukraine’s troops, the military added. They send small groups of soldiers to settlements south of Pokrovsk to block supplies.
“They (Russians) don’t go directly into the city because it means heavy urban fighting. So they first try to bypass the city and interrupt the logistics chains,” Trehubov said.
Watch: Russia and Ukraine swap 150 prisoners in tearful exchange before new year
Comment | Putin has ruled Russia for 25 years – but what has he really got to show for it?
The then prime minister Vladimir Putin’s media operation had already begun to portray the ex-KGB operative in stark contrast to the moribund Yeltsin as an action man. That same year the second Chechen war on the country’s southern border raged. Twenty-five years later, Vladimir Putin is still in the Kremlin but Russia is again in the grip of war on its post-Soviet periphery after last week’s downing of an airliner over Chechen airspace.
Add to the tension that Putin’s Russia has been engaged in a covert war against Ukraine since 2014, which he had turned into a full-scale invasion by early 2022 – a conflict that remains at an impasse today. As with his earlier war against Chechnya, Putin’s obduracy turned an opening military fiasco into a brutal war of attrition which Russia’s resources could win at a huge price.
Mark Almond writes:
Ukraine will ask allies to boost its air defenses at a meeting in Germany, Zelensky says
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will again call on allies to boost its air defenses at this week’s meeting in Germany, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes over later this month with a vow to end the almost three-year war quickly.
Mr Zelensky said that dozens of partner countries will participate in the meeting of the Ramstein group at Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday, “including those who can help boost our capabilities not only to defend against missiles but also against guided bombs and Russian aviation.”
“We will discuss this with them and continue to persuade them,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address on Saturday. “The task remains unchanged: strengthening our air defense.”
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The Independent View | Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
The first day of the new year came with bad tidings for energy consumers, both in Britain and across Europe. Here, the cap set by the regulator, Ofgem, for the price of domestic gas has been raised for the second time this winter. On the other side of Europe, Ukraine ended the transit of Russian gas across its territory, forcing several EU countries to turn to imports of more expensive liquefied natural gas.
Together, these measures mean that for many millions of users the price of gas will be going up – again.
Ukraine’s decision not to renew transit arrangements that have been in place since 1991, effectively brings to an end an era of relatively cheap Russian gas for Europe – and not before time.
Read The Independent’s editorial here:
Ukraine is right to turn off the flow of Russian gas – whatever the cost
Editorial: Almost three years after Putin’s invasion, it almost beggars belief that cheap energy from Russia was still being piped across war-ravaged Ukraine into Europe. Stopping it has triggered another global price spiral, and may yet have dire political consequences – but EU leaders cannot afford to maintain this habit
Source: independent.co.uk