Battle between Russia and Ukraine inside Kursk, with waves of tanks, drones and North Koreans

Five months after Ukrainian forces overran the border in Russia’s first ground invasion since World War II, the two armies are locked in some of the most ferocious clashes of the war there, battling for territory and influence in the conflict.

The intensity of the fighting brings to mind some of the worst sieges in eastern Ukraine over the past three years, including towns such as Bakhmut and Avdiivka, names that now conjure memories of mass slaughters of soldiers on both sides.

Fighting in Russia’s Kursk region has taken on a layer of importance to the potential for the region to play a role in any ceasefire negotiations. Faced with the prospect of a new, unpredictable American president – ​​who has pledged to end the war quickly, without clarifying the terms – Ukraine hopes to use Russian territory as a bargaining chip.

Russia, which relies on North Korean reinforcements, hopes to remove that region from Ukraine’s control.

“Here, the Russians need to seize this area at any cost and pour all their power into it, while we give everything we have to hold it,” the sergeant said. Oleksandr, 46, is a Ukrainian infantry platoon commander. “We are holding on, destroying, destroying, destroying – to a degree that is difficult to even comprehend.”

He and other soldiers, who asked to give only their first name or call sign according to military protocol, said that waves of attacking North Korean infantry had made the battles fiercer than before.

“The situation worsened dramatically when the North Koreans started arriving,” said Jr. Sgt. Oleksiy, 30, platoon commander. “They are collectively pressing our fronts, finding weak points and penetrating them.”

Russia, with the help of an estimated 12,000 North Koreans, regained about half of the territory it lost over the summer. Its attacks over the past week have eroded the territory controlled by Ukraine.

But Ukrainian forces have also gone on the offensive in recent days, seeking to secure an area west of Sodja, a small town in Russia about six miles from the border that has become an anchor for Ukrainian forces, who seized about 200 square miles in August. .

“If they keep pressuring us and we don’t respond, the enemy will feel a sense of superiority,” said Andrey, 44, a military intelligence officer. “When someone keeps hitting you, and you don’t fight back, the attacker will feel psychologically relieved, even relaxed.”

The Russians have largely thwarted the attack, but fighting continues and the situation remains unpredictable, the soldiers said.

The intensity of the battles can be seen on the road approaching the Russian border: a continuous stream of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles pass in front of disabled and exploded equipment.

Russian bombs and missiles exploded with thunderous force in the border villages, and Ukrainian missiles were seen shooting across the sky in the opposite direction.

Tens of thousands of drones also hunted down the targets. They have Transformed the battlefieldAlthough Ukraine has improved its electronic warfare capabilities, this has limited the effectiveness of drones that rely on radio signals. Russia has now flooded the theater with drones guided by ultra-fine fiber optic cables, with a flight range of more than 10 miles.

The Ukrainian soldiers said their current best defense against them was a rifle.

The renewed fighting comes against a very ambiguous political background. US President-elect Donald J. Trump spent months on the campaign trail questioning US military aid to Ukraine. He said he wanted to end the war quickly, but he did not explain how.

Russian forces have been launching an attack in eastern Ukraine for more than a year. Achieving steady progress Despite the heavy losses.

Through its incursion, Ukraine aims to create a buffer zone to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city of Sumy, less than 20 miles from the border with Russia. Ukraine also wants to relieve pressure on the Eastern Front by returning the Russians to their lands.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the campaign sent a strong message to the world that Ukraine can do more than just play defensively.

“It is one of our victories, and I think it is one of the biggest victories, not only last year, but throughout the war,” Zelensky said Thursday in Germany, while meeting with representatives of countries providing military support to Ukraine.

However, some military analysts have warned that the Kursk campaign in Ukraine could leave its forces increasingly stretched and losing ground in the eastern Donbass region.

Many soldiers fighting in Kursk believe the painful losses in eastern Ukraine would have been worse without their campaign.

“We have to understand that the Russians are using their best soldiers and their best reserves in this area,” said Capt. Oleksandr Shchershin, 30, a battalion commander in the 47th Mechanized Brigade. “Considering what they can do in other parts of Ukraine, this is a good thing,” he added.

He was still with his eyes closed after a battle that took place a few days ago to thwart a major Russian attack.

The Russians attacked the Ukrainian positions in six waves, using more than 50 tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles.

Captain Shershin said that while dozens of enemy soldiers were killed and wounded and a large amount of Russian equipment was destroyed, the Russians advanced a few miles.

“When the first wave comes, we focus on it and deal with it, and then the next wave comes,” he said. There is no time to redirect artillery or other resources while the next wave moves in from a different attack line.

“We are falling behind,” he said. “Then the next wave comes, and someone manages to get to the desired section and accomplish their mission.”

He said it is still difficult to see how many in the West view the war in Ukraine like a video game and refuse to see the threat Russia poses to the world.

He acknowledged that Ukrainians’ morale had declined during nearly three years of war, but said most soldiers still understood why they had to fight. He said: “Stopping will mean our death, that’s all.”

Some Ukrainian soldiers said that North Korea’s entry into the war should worry European countries and their allies.

They said the North Korean troops fought as a disciplined, loyal and courageous force, usually moving in large formations on foot, even across minefields under heavy artillery fire and pursued by drones. Ukrainian authorities said on Saturday that their forces Two North Korean soldiers captured They are the first to be taken alive so far.

Sgt. Oleksandr, the platoon commander, said the massacre in Kursk was as terrifying as anything he had witnessed since joining the army in 2014.

“You look and you can’t understand where you are, and you see every day how many people we are destroying,” he said.

Compare that with Bachmut, when machine guns had to be replaced regularly because they couldn’t handle the pace of killing. “After two hours of lying down a lot of people couldn’t handle it mentally,” he said.

“It’s the same here now,” he said, sharing a video on his mobile phone showing the aftermath of the latest attack. The field was littered with corpses, torn apart, twisted and stacked in ways that made it difficult to count the dead.

“Worse for pedestrians,” he said. “When you’re sitting there, and they’re heading towards you, and everything is flying towards you.”

Anastasia Kuznetsova Contributed to reports.