Ukraine renews brutality within Russia

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Ukrainian forces are making major advances in Russia’s southern Kursk region, although its forces are struggling to hold the line anywhere on the front line.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Sunday said that its army had repelled two Ukrainian attacks, while pro-war bloggers confirmed that Kyiv forces were still on the march to Kursk. The renewed push comes after Ukraine is estimated to have lost nearly half of the 1,200 sq km it captured in August on Russian territory.

“Kursk region, good news, Russia gets what it deserves,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, wrote on Telegram.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s counter-disinformation agency, a government communications agency, wrote in the Telegraph that the Russian side was being attacked in “several ways” and “had great concerns” in the attack of ” surprise”.

Ukrainian authorities did not immediately say the target of the new attack inside Russia. But this operation will use up important weapons and personnel, which are already very limited in its eastern part where Moscow’s troops are advancing rapidly.

Russia captured less than 4,200 sq km of territory by 2024, the Center for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, reported this week, adding that half of the gains were made from September to November.

Most of these gains were in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where settlements under Russian control have become a daily occurrence.

However Western military critics said that the Kursk invasion of Ukraine gave the country an important military advantage, its efforts to hold the area – instead of capturing Russian troops and retreating – exacerbated the shortage of personnel.

Ukrainian General Oleksandr Syrskyi said in August that the hope was that Russia would withdraw troops from the east to protect its territory. But it soon became clear that Russia intends to continue its offensive in the Donetsk region and will not move its main battle groups to Kursk.

North Korea, a key ally of the Kremlin, he has since sent thousands of its troops to the Kursk region to reinforce Russian forces there. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that hundreds of North Korean soldiers were killed in Kursk between Friday and Saturday. The Financial Times was unable to verify his claims.

However, the eastward advance came at a great cost to the Russian people. Luke Pollard, the UK’s deputy secretary of state for defence, told parliament last month that the number of people killed by Russia exceeded 750,000 since the war began.

Russia continues its daily attacks on Ukrainian cities, towns and power structures behind the front lines, mostly using its steady supply of Iranian attack drones. The country has been able to avoid long-term blackouts, however, thanks to quick repair efforts, electricity imports from Europe and less winter so far.

Zelenskyy said that in the first three days of the new year, Russia used more than 300 drones and 20 missiles.

On New Year’s Day, four Russian drones managed to bypass Kyiv’s air defenses, hitting the center of the city, including a building 100 meters away from the Ukrainian presidential administration. Those attack planes used an advanced satellite antenna, according to electronic warfare experts.