Ukraine-Russia newest: Kyiv disputes that Putin’s forces have captured frontline Kurakhove as Kursk battle rages
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Russia has suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in its Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 of Vladimir Putin’s troops killed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed.
“During the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost 38,000 of their soldiers in this direction alone, with nearly 15,000 of these losses being irreversible,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address. Ukraine launched its surprise incursion inside Russia’s Kursk in August last year.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian soldiers renewed their offensive inside Kursk in a bid to gain as much territory as possible before Donald Trump enters office in Washington.
Kyiv has not yet acknowledged the attack but a senior Ukrainian official said Russia was “getting what it deserves” there.
Russia launched nearly 100 attacks in the Kursk region in the last 24 hours, according to the latest update from the Ukrainian general staff, in a bid to reverse Kyiv’s recent gains. It made up nearly half of the assaults reported by Ukraine over the last day across the entire, roughly 640-mile front line.
Ukrainian pilot destroys six miles in one sortie
A Ukrainian pilot flying a Western F-16 fighter jet has shot down six Russian missiles in one sortie, the Ukrainian defence ministry has announced.
The pilot shot down the cruise missiles during a Russian aerial attack involving more than 200 missiles and drones on 13 December last year.
Nearly half of Russian attacks in past day staged in Kursk
Nearly half of all of Russia’s attacks in the past day were launched in its own region of Kursk as it looks to blunt a fresh Ukrainian counteroffensive in the area, Kyiv’s military has claimed.
In its latest update, the Ukrainian general staff said Russia launched 94 assaults in Kursk. In total, they launched 218 attacks across the entire, roughly 640-mile frontline.
They added that Russia launched 67 attacks at the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove fronts in the Donetsk region, where Moscow has been advancing slowly over the past year.
In total, that means that 74 per cent of all Russian attacks yesterday were launched in Kursk, Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.
In pictures: On the frontline in Kharkiv
Russia says its troops improve positions, repel Ukrainian attacks
Russia’s defence ministry has claimed its central, western and eastern troop groupings had repelled Ukrainian counter-attacks in the last 24 hours and improved their positions.
Russia said on Monday its forces had made important gains in eastern Ukraine while continuing to fend off a new Ukrainian offensive inside the Kursk region of western Russia.
However, open-source war trackers suggest that Ukraine have made confirmed gains in Kursk.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy postpones Kyiv trip until after inauguration
US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy has postponed a fact-finding trip to Kyiv and other European capitals until after Trump’s inauguration on 20 January, according to four sources with knowledge of the trip’s planning.
Retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, who is set to serve as Mr Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, had initially planned a mission to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian leaders in early January, Reuters reported last month. His team was also setting up meetings with officials in other European capitals, including Rome and Paris.
Source: independent.co.uk
