Five months after crossing the border into Russia’s southern Kursk region, Ukrainian forces pushed deeper into Russia on Monday, even as they appeared to have lost a strategic city in eastern Ukraine. In order to do so, a new attack was launched.
The scale of the new Ukrainian military offensive in Kursk remains unclear, but Russian and Ukrainian officials reported heavy fighting Sunday night. Combat footage located by military analysts showed that Ukraine was trying to break through Russian defenses from at least three directions.
This is the first significant attempt by Ukrainian forces to advance into Kursk since the initial invasion in August. Since then, Russia has regained about half of the territory it lost.
At the same time, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that Russian forces had seized control of the important but shattered industrial city of Krahov, closing in on Ukrainian forces in the southern Donbas region after more than two months of heavy shelling and heavy shelling. insisted. Finding.
The Ukrainian military command in the east did not comment on Russia’s claim that Krahov had fallen. Soldiers fighting in the area and local Ukrainian military officials said by phone that the town was effectively lost, although there was some resistance in factories on the outskirts. They requested anonymity to discuss sensitive military information.
The Kremlin said in a statement that Defense Minister Andrei Belosov congratulated the Russian soldiers who captured the town on Monday.
Military analysts said the fall of Krahov and surrounding towns could prompt Russia to expand its attack on the city of Pokrovsk, 34 miles to the north.
Russian forces are trying to surround Pokrovsk, the focus of the war in recent months, from the south, hoping to avoid a brutal and protracted urban battle. They advanced to within about a mile of a key supply road southwest of the city, according to several analysis groups, including the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group.
Although both armies are battered and exhausted from the nearly three-year war, the fighting on the front lines continues to intensify.
President-elect Donald J. Trump is preparing for a one-on-one offensive, with the Ukrainians continuing a modest offensive in Kursk and the Russians continuing a full-on offensive in eastern Ukraine, as President-elect Donald J. It highlighted how both countries are trying to show off their strength. Analysts said he would take office.
Trump vowed to end the war quickly, without specifying how.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed confidence that Mr. Trump could deliver on that promise during a three-hour conversation with podcaster Rex Fridman.
“I think President Trump not only has the will, but he has all the potential. It’s not just talk,” he said. “I really count on him, and I think the people really count on him. So he has enough power to put pressure on President Putin.”
Appearances with popular podcasters in the Trump community (including Elon Musk, whose interview was featured on his social media network X) appeared to be an attempt to communicate directly with Trump supporters.
Mr. Zelensky also reaffirmed his belief that there can be no lasting peace unless Ukraine is militarily strong and has U.S. support.
“Without security guarantees, Putin will come again,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken expressed similar concerns Monday while traveling in South Korea.
“At some point, there will be a ceasefire. ‘Game over’ is not in President Putin’s mind,” Blinken told reporters. “His imperial ambitions remain, and what he’s going to do is rest, recalibrate, and eventually strike again.”
Blinken also said the Ukrainian operation in Kursk would play a key role in peace talks.
“The position of the Ukrainian military in the Kursk region is very important, because it is of course relevant to any negotiations that may take place next year,” he said.
North Korea has sent more than 11,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces in Kursk, Ukrainian and U.S. officials said, and Blinken said the partnership between the two countries continues to grow. . He reiterated previous assertions that Russia is willing to provide North Korea with advanced space and satellite technology in exchange for weapons and equipment to support the war effort in Ukraine.
Despite the involvement of North Korean troops in the Battle of Kursk, Ukraine has managed to hold on to more than 150 square miles of land within Russia. This is equivalent to slightly less than half of the territory originally occupied.
But military analysts said the amount of territory Ukraine holds within Russia is not as important as the message the operation sends to the world.
“Kursk is a strategic shift in the war story,” said Taras Chumut, a former military officer and director general. come back alivea charity supporting the Ukrainian military. “It’s about the fact that Russia can lose territory, its own territory. It’s about the fact that Ukraine can carry out unexpected actions and unconventional asymmetric approaches.”
But Ukraine’s new offensive in Kursk comes as it struggles to stabilize its defensive lines.
Ukrainian analysts and soldiers said the loss of Krahov, which covers just about three square miles of land, highlighted problems with the way Ukraine’s military is managed and deployed.
Under pressure to address these concerns, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov ordered a comprehensive review of military command.
“Winning requires a deep analysis of experience and an honest understanding of mistakes,” he said in a statement Thursday.
Analysts and military personnel said in interviews over the past year that the problem runs deeper than a simple staffing shortage.
“If understaffed brigades lose positions, it is not necessarily due to a lack of replacements,” Ukrainian analytical group Frontelligence said in a report released Friday.
“It is often due to poor organizational decisions, such as recruiting new draftees into new units rather than reinforcing depleted veteran brigades.”
The report added: “The window of opportunity to address these identified issues is rapidly closing and doing nothing is not an option.”
a a scathing report Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov describes the newly established 155th Anne Kiev Brigade, trained in France and equipped with Western weapons, raising concerns about problems within the Ukrainian military and helping to raise calls for urgent change. It became.
In December, the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case regarding the brigade’s management, which had a high number of deserters and problems related to staffing and management.
Military analysts said Russia also faced tough challenges, even if they remained hidden from public view. The Kremlin tightly controls information and punishes dissent, but has yet to make significant operational progress despite superiority in both personnel and weapons.
Throughout 2024, Russia captured 4,168 square kilometers, or about 1,600 square miles, of territory, mostly fields and small villages, according to a report by the Institute for the Study of War.
Russian forces have recently advanced faster than at any time since the first months of the war, but the research group says it will still take two years at the current rate of advance for Russian forces to capture the remaining areas. He said it would take longer. The Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine remains under Ukrainian control.
Lyubov Sholdko Contributed to the report.
