Russia said Sunday that Ukraine had launched a “counterattack” in the western border region of Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces began a shock ground offensive last August.
“At about 9:00 am Moscow time (0600 GMT), in order to halt the advance of Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counterattack,” the Russian Defence Ministry said.
“The operation to destroy the Ukrainian army formations continues,” it said.
“I can’t understand why it is necessary to officially report on the Kursk region.
“In the Kursk region, the Russians are very worried because they were attacked from several directions, and it was a surprise for them,” he said.
Russia claimed on Sunday that Ukraine had launched a “counterattack” in Kursk, a region on the western border where Kyiv’s forces launched a surprise ground offensive in August of last year.
The extent of Ukraine’s progress in the area was not immediately apparent, but earlier, pro-Kremlin military bloggers claimed that a potent new offensive was underway.
In the nearly three-year conflict, the attack occurs at a pivotal moment as both sides aim to strengthen their negotiating position before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that the enemy launched a counterattack at approximately 9:00 am Moscow time (0600 GMT) to stop the Russian troops’ advance toward Kursk.
According to Ukraine, the attack, which was aimed at the village of Berdin, which is roughly 15 kilometers (nine miles) northeast of Sudzha, involved two tanks, a dozen armored vehicles, and a demolition unit.
The statement stated that “the operation to destroy the Ukrainian army formations continues.”.
Military bloggers sympathetic to the Kremlin acknowledged that pressure had been applied to the Russian army, but claimed Moscow was retaliating.
Prominent pro-Russian Telegram channel Rybar stated, “The main events of the next attempted offensive by the Ukrainian army are clearly still ahead of us.”.
On Telegram, pro-Russian military blogger Dva Mayora posted pictures allegedly depicting a line of Ukrainian armored cars moving through the snow.
It is ‘worried’ in Russia.
With a well-known lawmaker calling for silence, Ukrainian officials provided scant information about the new offensive.
“I don’t see why an official report on the Kursk region is required. Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian MP, suggested that it might be better to carry out the action after the operation is finished.
Other officials were ecstatic about the retaliation, which follows nearly three years after Moscow began its full-scale military invasion of Ukraine.
“Russia is getting what it deserves,” Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, stated.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, stated nonspecifically on Telegram that defense forces were “working” in the region.
He stated, “The Russians are extremely concerned in the Kursk region because they were surprised by the multifaceted attack.”.
Shortly after its incursion began on August 6, 2024, Kyiv took control of dozens of villages in the Kursk region; however, its progress stalled when Moscow sent reinforcements, including thousands of troops from its ally North Korea, to the area.
Last November, a Ukrainian army source told AFP that Kyiv still held 800 square kilometers (roughly 300 square miles) of the Russian border region, whereas earlier reports said it held nearly 1,400 square kilometers.
The Kursk operation last year, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, diverted tens of thousands of Russian troops from the eastern front and strengthened Kyiv’s “exchange fund”—its negotiating stance on exchanging prisoners of war.
He claimed on Saturday night that on that day and the day before, “up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian airborne troops” had been killed in combat in the Kursk region.
However, an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War shows that as of now, Kyiv has failed to stop Moscow’s advances in Ukraine, which were seven times greater in 2024 than the previous year.
