Russia is attempting to push Ukrainian forces from its western Kursk area with tens of 1000’s of troopers, Ukraine’s president says, aiming to retake territory it has misplaced since August whereas its offensive in jap Ukraine grinds on.
In a publish on Telegram on Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned Ukrainian troopers had been combating in opposition to almost “50,000 enemy troops” in Kursk.
Zelenskyy mentioned Ukraine would “significantly strengthen” its positions on the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove fronts within the east, the place essentially the most lively combating is going on.
In August, Ukraine launched a shock incursion into Kursk, seizing settlements in its first operation in Russian territory since Moscow launched its invasion in February 2022.
Russia, nonetheless, has continued its sluggish however regular advance throughout a lot of jap Ukraine, which it’s capturing village by village in a bid to grab your complete industrialised Donbas area.
Zelenskyy’s feedback come a day after The New York Instances reported that Moscow had assembled a power of fifty,000 troopers, together with North Korean soldiers, within the Russian area bordering Ukraine.
Western nations, South Korea and Ukraine have all mentioned North Korea has despatched troopers to Russia.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean troopers on its territory.
On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into regulation a treaty on Moscow’s strategic partnership with Pyongyang, together with a mutual defence provision.
Meanwhile, on Monday, Russian attacks damaged a dam near the front line in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine, its governor said, warning that nearby villages could be threatened by rising water levels.
Moscow’s army is rapidly advancing in the Donetsk region and are closing in on the town of Kurakhove, which lies next to the reservoir and had a pre-war population of about 18,000 people.
“The Russians damaged the dam of the reservoir of Kurakhove. This strike potentially threatens residents of settlements on the Vovcha River, both in Donetsk and Dnipro regions,” Governor Vadym Filashkin said.
Also on Monday, a Russian missile hit a residential building in Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, injuring at least seven people.
The Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor, Serhiy Lysak, said on Telegram that a 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were among the injured.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson also told the Reuters news agency on Monday that Russian infantry groups could launch ground assaults on the neighbouring Zaporizhia region in a matter of days.
The spokesperson said the attacks could put more pressure on Kyiv’s forces, which are already overstretched.
“[The assaults] may start within the close to future. We’re not even speaking about weeks. We’re anticipating it to occur any day,” Vladyslav Voloshyn instructed Reuters.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov denied Putin had spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump on the Ukraine warfare regardless of experiences that the leaders had spoken.
“That is the obvious instance of the standard of the data that’s being printed now, generally even in pretty respected publications,” Peskov mentioned, including that there have been “no concrete plans but” for Putin to contact Trump.
Throughout his marketing campaign to win the White Home, Trump mentioned he may finish the warfare inside 24 hours if elected with out elaborating.
Individually, the Kremlin mentioned it sensed that European powers had been nervous about Trump’s presidency and it was too early to talk to European leaders about ending the battle as they proceed to provide Kyiv with weapons.
“No preparation is being carried out now [to speak to European leaders]. Now we have not acquired any alerts,” Peskov mentioned.
“European leaders are persevering with … to attempt to obtain a strategic defeat of Russia,” he added.
