Russia reports capture of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kurakhove

Russian armed forces According to government information from Moscow, they have entered the city Kurachowe in the Eastern Ukraine captured.

Russian units have “completely liberated the largest town in southwest Donbass,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday in the Telegram online service. The capture of Kurakhove would be a decisive advance for Moscow after months of steady Russian gains in the region.

Russia had recently accelerated its advance in eastern Ukraine

The capture of the “important logistics center” Kurakhove will make it possible to conquer the rest of the Donetsk region “at an accelerated pace,” the Defense Ministry in Moscow continued. The industrial city, where around 22,000 people lived before the Russian offensive began in February 2022, is located on a reservoir, on the banks of which there is also a power plant. The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had turned the city into a “heavily fortified area with a well-developed network of long-standing firing positions and underground communication links.”

Russia had accelerated its advance in eastern Ukraine in recent months in order to make up as much ground as possible before Donald Trump was sworn in as US President on January 20th. Trump had announced that he wanted to quickly end the conflict, which had lasted almost three years, without, however, mentioning any concrete proposals for a ceasefire or a peace agreement.

Fighting in Kursk

The opposing sides had previously engaged in heavy fighting there until late Sunday evening following a surprise counterattack by Ukrainian units in the Russian Kursk region. In its evening situation report, the General Staff in Kiev reported a total of 42 individual armed clashes in the western Russian region. “Twelve battles are still ongoing at the moment,” it said. Neither side provided any information about losses, successes or changes in the frontline situation.

“The Russians in the Kursk region are very worried because they were attacked from several directions and this came as a surprise to them,” said the General Staff in Kiev, commenting on the latest developments. In the evening, Russian media only reported that drone attacks near Kursk had been repelled.

Last summer, Ukrainian units unexpectedly advanced across the border towards the western Russian city of Kursk and achieved major gains in territory in the process. Russia later brought together around 50,000 soldiers, including around 10,000 fighters from North Korea, for a counteroffensive. By the time the Ukrainians launched a new counterattack, the Russian military had recaptured almost half of the occupied territory in months of heavy fighting.

Blinken: Ukrainian position in Kursk important for negotiations

According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the situation of the Ukrainian armed forces in Kursk is of crucial importance for future negotiations between Kiev and Moscow. “Your position in Kursk is important because it is certainly a factor in the negotiations that could take place in the coming year,” Blinken said on Monday on the sidelines of his visit to South Korea. The outgoing US administration under President Joe Biden wants to ensure that Kiev “has the best possible cards” in the event of negotiations, he added.