Russia claims control of the main town of Korakhov in eastern Ukraine

Five months after storming across the border into the Kursk region in southern Russia, Ukrainian forces made a renewed push Monday to push deeper into Russia, even as they appeared to have lost a strategic town in eastern Ukraine.

While the scale of the renewed Ukrainian attack in Kursk remains unclear, Russian and Ukrainian officials reported heavy fighting on Sunday night. Combat footage identified by military analysts indicated that Ukraine was trying to penetrate Russian defenses in at least three directions.

It is the first significant attempt by Ukrainian forces to advance on Kursk since the original attempt Invasion in August. Since then, Russia has regained nearly half of the territory it lost.

At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Monday that its forces had taken control of Kurakhov, an important but devastated industrial city, closing in on Ukrainian forces in the southern Donbas region after more than two months of heavy shelling and shelling. Fighting.

The Ukrainian military command in the east did not comment on the Russian claim that Kurakhov had fallen. Soldiers fighting in the area and a local Ukrainian military official, when reached by phone, said that although there were pockets of resistance in factories on the outskirts of the city, the city was essentially lost. They requested anonymity to discuss sensitive military information.

The Kremlin said in a statement that its Defense Minister Andrei Belousov congratulated Russian soldiers on seizing the town on Monday.

The fall of Korakhov and its surrounding cities could allow Russia to expand its reach Attack on the city of Pokrovsk21 miles to the north, military analysts said.

Russian forces are trying to surround the city of Pokrovsk focal point of the war in recent months, from the south, hoping to avoid brutal and prolonged fighting in urban areas. They advanced to within about a mile of a vital supply route southwest of the city, according to several analytical groups, including the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based research group.

Although both sides are battered and exhausted after nearly three years of war, fighting along the front has intensified.

The tit-for-tat attacks — with the Ukrainians going on the offensive, albeit modestly, in Kursk, and the Russians continuing reckless attacks in eastern Ukraine — have highlighted the extent to which the Kremlin and Kiev are seeking to project force as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office. .

Mr. Trump has pledged to end the war quickly without explaining how.

President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a three-hour conversation with presenter Lex Friedman, expressed confidence in Trump’s ability to fulfill this promise.

He said: “I believe that President Trump not only has the will, but he has all these possibilities, and this is not just talk.” “I really depend on him, and I think our people really depend on him, so he has enough power to put pressure on him, to put pressure on Putin.”

The appearance with a popular broadcaster in Trump’s circles — including with Elon Musk, who highlighted the interview on his social media network, X — appeared to be an attempt to connect directly with Trump supporters.

Mr. Zelensky also reiterated his belief that there can be no lasting peace unless Ukraine is militarily strong and supported by the United States.

“If we do not have security guarantees, Putin will come back,” he said.

Antony Blinken, US Secretary of State, echoed these concerns as he traveled to South Korea on Monday.

“There will, at some point, be a ceasefire. It will not be game over in Putin’s mind,” Mr. Blinken told reporters. “His imperial ambitions are still there, and what he will seek to do is rest and renew, and then eventually re-attack.” .

Mr. Blinken also said that Ukraine’s campaign in Kursk would play a crucial role in any peace talks.

“The positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region are very important, because this is of course something that will be relevant to any negotiations that may take place next year,” he said.

Ukrainian and American officials said North Korea sent more than 11,000 soldiers to fight alongside the Russians in Kursk, and Blinken said the partnership between the two countries continues to grow. He reiterated his previous assertions that Moscow is willing to provide North Korea with advanced space and satellite technologies in exchange for weapons and equipment to aid its war efforts in Ukraine.

Despite the participation of North Korean forces in the Battle of Kursk, Ukraine has managed to hold on to more than 150 square miles of territory within Russia – slightly less than half the amount of territory it initially seized.

However, military analysts said the amount of territory Ukraine controls inside Russia is less important than the message the campaign sends to the world.

“Kursk represents a strategic shift in the narratives of the war,” said Taras Shmut, a former military officer and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. I come back aliveIt is a charitable foundation that supports the Ukrainian army. “It is about the fact that Russia could lose its territory, its own territory. It is about the fact that Ukraine is able to implement some unexpected actions and unconventional, asymmetric methods.

But Ukraine’s renewed offensive in Kursk comes as it struggles to stabilize defensive lines.

The loss of Korakhov, which covers only about three square miles of territory, highlighted problems with the way Ukraine manages and deploys its forces, Ukrainian analysts and soldiers said.

Under pressure to address these concerns, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustam Omerov ordered a comprehensive review of the military leadership.

“Victory requires a deep analysis of experience and an honest understanding of mistakes,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

The issues run deeper than just personnel shortages, analysts and soldiers said in interviews over the past year.

“When undermanned brigades lose their positions, it is not always due to insufficient recruitment,” Ukrainian analytical group Frontiliens wrote in a report released on Friday.

“Poor organizational decisions, such as shifting new recruits to new units rather than reinforcing depleted veteran brigades, are often to blame.”

The report added: “The window of opportunity to address these specific issues is rapidly diminishing, and inaction is not an option.”

A Scathing report Ukrainian journalist Yuri Butusov’s account of the newly established AN-155 brigade in Kiev, which was trained in France and equipped with Western weapons, raised concerns about problems in the Ukrainian military establishment and helped fuel calls for urgent changes.

The State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case in December regarding the management of the brigade, which experienced high levels of desertion and issues related to staffing and management.

Russia also faces major challenges even if it remains hidden from public view, military analysts said. The Kremlin imposes tight control on information, and the opposition is punished, but it has not yet achieved significant progress operationally despite its superiority in personnel and weapons.

Over the course of 2024, Russia captured 4,168 square kilometers — or about 1,600 square miles — of territory, mostly fields and small villages, the Institute for the Study of War reported.

Although Russian forces have recently been advancing as rapidly as they have been at any time since the early months of the war, the research group said it would take more than two years at their current rate of advance for the Russians to seize the remainder of the area. The Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine remains under Ukrainian control.

Lyubov Shlodko Contributed to reports.