Written by Mark Trevelyan
(Reuters) – Russian military bloggers reported on Sunday that Ukrainian forces launched a new major offensive in the Kursk region of western Russia.
Ukrainian forces stormed the border in a surprise incursion on August 6, and over the past five months they have resisted Russian attempts to expel them.
Reports from Russian bloggers, who support Moscow's war in Ukraine but are often critical of failures and setbacks, have suggested that the latest Ukrainian offensive has put Russian forces on the defensive.
“Despite strong pressure from the enemy, our units heroically hold the line,” the Operativne Svodki (Operations Reports) channel said.
She added that artillery and small arms battles are taking place and that Ukraine is using Western armored vehicles to bring in large numbers of infantry.
The reports, which Reuters could not independently verify, said the fighting was concentrated near the town of Bolshoi Soldatskoye.
But one influential blogger, Yuriy Podlyak, said this was likely a Ukrainian diversionary maneuver, perhaps to prepare for a strike on Glushkovo, located to the west. He recommended that civilians there and in another town, Korenevo, evacuate.
Ukrainian and Western assessments indicate that about 11,000 soldiers from North Korea, Russia's ally, were deployed in the Kursk region to support Russian forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian and North Korean forces had suffered heavy losses.
“In yesterday's and today's battles near only one village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,” Zelensky said. “This is important.”
The president did not provide specific details. A battalion can vary in size but generally consists of several hundred troops.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in response to a question during his marathon annual phone call last month that Russia would certainly expel Ukrainian forces from Kursk, but he refused to specify a date for that.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not mention Kursk in its latest update on the battlefield on Sunday.
A bargain chip
Ukraine's unexpected success in carving out a slice of Russian territory and holding on to it since last August could provide it with an important bargaining chip as the two sides prepare for possible peace talks this year.
Both are seeking to improve their positions on the battlefield before US President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20. Trump has repeatedly said he would bring the war to a quick end, but without explaining how.
However, by committing some of its most effective units to the Kursk offensive, Ukraine has weakened its defense of its eastern regions where Russian forces have advanced since August at their fastest pace since 2022.
The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that the “hottest” front was near Pokrovsk, an important road and rail hub towards which Russia has been pushing for months.
On Sunday, Ukrainian air defenses shot down 61 of 103 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack, the Ukrainian air force said. Russia said it destroyed five Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.
