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Ukraine has made minor tactical advances since launching its renewed offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, reports said.
Moscow said Sunday that Ukraine had mounted a “counterattack” in the Russian border region that Kyiv has partially controlled since it launched a shock incursion there last August.
The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War said that Ukrainian forces have advanced in southern Berdin, central Russkoye Porechnoye and central Novosotnitsky between Sunday and Monday. All three villages lie along the road leading from the Kyiv-controlled town of Sudzha to the regional capital of Kursk.
ISW cited geolocated footage as indicating that Russian forces attempted to leverage the Ukrainian attacks northeast of Sudzha to attack Kyiv’s positions elsewhere in the Kursk region on Monday.
“Increased Ukrainian offensive operations in Kursk [region] may be the beginning stages of a concerted Ukrainian operation in Kursk [region] or elsewhere in the theater, though ISW is unprepared to offer any specific forecast,” ISW wrote.
Retired Australian Army Major-General Mick Ryan said Ukraine’s new offensive caught Russia by surprise.
“However, this is more of a tactical than a strategic surprise,” wrote Ryan, who monitors the war in Ukraine. “Unlike the original thrust into Kursk in August 2024, the Russians appear to have taken this in their stride so far.”
Ryan noted that Ukraine’s advances so far remain small, with around 20-25 square kilometers taken so far.
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov arrived in the Kursk region on Sunday, shortly before Moscow first reported that Ukraine was launching an offensive.
But otherwise, Russian federal and regional officials have downplayed the latest Ukrainian offensive or ignored it altogether, the independent Mozhem Obyasnit news outlet reported.
On Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops “continue to defeat Ukrainian army units on the territory of the Kursk region” and had prevented an attempted “breakthrough” near the village of Berdin.
Kyiv seized dozens of villages in the Kursk region shortly after its incursion started on Aug. 6, 2024, but its advances stalled after Moscow rushed reinforcements to the area, including thousands of troops from its ally North Korea.
A Ukrainian army source told AFP last November that Kyiv still controlled 800 square kilometers of the Russian border region, down from previous claims it controlled almost 1,400 square kilometers.
The new assault comes at a critical point in Russia’s nearly three-year invasion of its neighbor, with both sides seeking to strengthen their negotiating hand ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House on Jan. 20.
Ukraine’s offensive in the Kursk region comes as Russia continues to press forward in eastern Ukraine, claiming the key town of Kurakhove on Monday.
AFP contributed reporting.
