Russian military says Ukraine launched ‘counterattack’ in Russia’s Kursk region

kyiv is not ready to give up on Kursk. The Russian army said on Sunday that Ukraine had launched “a counterattack” in this Russian region, an “assault” which it claims to have “defeated”. On the contrary, the Ukrainian authorities welcome “good news” on this front, without explicitly confirming an offensive. Ukrainian forces already control several hundred square kilometers of this border area since a surprise offensive in August 2024.

“Around 9 a.m. (7 a.m. in Paris), the enemy launched a counterattack in order to stop the advance of Russian troops in the Kursk area,” the Russian army said in a statement, according to which “the Assault group of the Ukrainian army was defeated by artillery and aviation. “The operation to destroy units of the Ukrainian forces continues,” she assured. In mid-December, Moscow launched an “intense” counter-offensive in the region, according to kyiv.

Russian forces “attacked from several sides”, according to kyiv

The Telegram channel Mash, known to be close to the Russian authorities, for its part assured that “the men of the Ukrainian army move in small groups. The total number of their troops amounts to 2,000.” According to Russian military bloggers, Ukrainian forces are particularly trying to take control of Berdine, a small town located about 20 km from the border between Ukraine and Russia.

Since August 2024, Ukraine has occupied several hundred square kilometers of the Russian region of Kursk, on the border, controlling in particular the small town of Soudja. This successful cross-border assault which took the Russian forces, particularly the border guards, by surprise, a failure for President Vladimir Putin who has been praising a “more sovereign” Russia since the launch of his men’s assault against Ukraine in February 2022.

Nearly a thousand km2 lost since August

On August 20 and 21, claimed Ukrainian advances reached a peak, extending over some 1,320 km2. But this area of ​​operations has since been reduced to 482 km2 as of December 30, according to AFP’s analysis of data provided by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and stopped at the latter date. Russia has notably deployed thousands of North Korean soldiers to reinforce its troops in the area.

They took part in assaults in the region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in recent weeks, who spoke of 3,000 deaths in these North Korean ranks. At the end of December, he also announced the death of several of these soldiers, wounded and taken prisoner, while National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby spoke of “more than a thousand” deployed soldiers killed or injured during assaults. “hopeless” in the Kursk region.

This new offensive in the Russian region of Kursk by the Ukrainian army comes two weeks before the return to the White House, on January 20, of Donald Trump, who called for an “immediate” ceasefire and promised to obtain a peace agreement to stop “the carnage”, without however ever detailing his plan. He also said he was opposed to Ukrainian strikes against Russian territory with American ATACMS missiles, a red line for Moscow. Russia claimed on Saturday that it had intercepted this type of missile fired by Ukraine the day before, and promised “retaliation”.