Warring sides battle in western Russia as Moscow reports gains in Ukraine

Thanks 'MF':

MF commented on "Shadows and shackles: Germany’s complicit silence on Palestine — Che Ran"

5 hours ago

https://t.me/geopolitics_live/40411

❗️The Russian Defense Ministry announced the liberation of Kurakhovo. It is the largest settlement in the southwestern part of Donbass.

More statements by the Russian Defense Ministry concerning the liberation of the settlement of Kurakhovo:
 
🔴During the liberation of Kurakhovo, the Ukrainian troops lost 80% of their personnel (more than 12,000 militants), about 3,000 units of various weapons and military equipment, including 40 tanks, the ministry added.

🔴Ukraine attracted nationalists, foreign mercenaries, and units of elite brigades of the Ukrainian forces to defend Kurakhovo.
 
🔴The liberation of Kurakhovo deprived Ukrainian troops of the opportunity to shell Donetsk and made it difficult to provide logistical support to their units

🔴Ukrainian forces have concentrated 26 battalions of 15,000 soldiers in Kurakhovo
 
🔴After the liberation of Kurakhovo, the Russian Armed Forces entered the operational space; this will increase the pace of the liberation of the Donetsk People's Republic
 
🔴Kurakhovo, before being liberated by Russian troops, significantly limited the maneuverability of attack aircraft of the Russian Armed Forces.

👍 Boost us | Chat | Stickers |@geopolitics_live

***

Reuters:

Warring sides battle in western Russia as Moscow reports gains in Ukraine

By Maxim Rodionov and Lucy Papachristou

January 7, 2025

12:16 AM GMT+11, Updated 9 min ago



A soldier holds up a Russian flag in Kurakhove, Donetsk Region, Ukraine in this screen grab taken from a social media video released on January 5, 2025, obtained by Reuters. Social Media/via REUTERS 


Summary

• Russia says it captures town that held out for weeks
• Ukraine does not acknowledge fall of Kurakhove
• Fierce fighting for second day in Russia's Kursk region
• Russian commander expects new Ukrainian attack

Jan 6 (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday its forces had made important gains in eastern Ukraine while continuing to fend off a new Ukrainian offensive inside the Kursk region of western Russia, where a second day of fierce fighting was under way.

The Russian defence ministry said its forces had captured the town of Kurakhove, 32 km (20 miles) south of Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian logistics hub towards which Russian forces have been advancing for months.

The ministry said taking Kurakhove, which had held out for many weeks, would enable Moscow's forces to step up the pace of their advance in Ukraine's Donetsk region. It also said it had captured Dachenske, a settlement within five miles of Pokrovsk.

Ukrainian monitoring group DeepState, which tracks the front line using open sources, showed most of 

Kurakhove under Russian control. Ukraine's Khortytsia group of forces said Russian forces continued to attack Kurakhove but Ukrainian forces were working to identify and repel Russian assault groups on that part of the front.

Both sides are fighting to improve their battlefield positions before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to bring a quick end to the nearly three-year-old war, takes office on Jan. 20.

Ukraine's main achievement in the past five months of fighting has been to capture and hold on to a slice of territory inside Russia's Kursk region that could provide it with an important bargaining chip in possible peace talks.

Ukraine has not revealed details of the new offensive it launched in Kursk on Sunday, though a senior Ukrainian official has said Russia is "getting what it deserves".

Russia's defence ministry said the attempted Ukrainian breakthrough had been foiled and the main Ukrainian force had been destroyed near the settlement of Berdin, close to a road running northeast towards the city of Kursk.

A senior Russian commander said a further attack was expected.

"Of course, this is not the end. Now we are recording a concentration of enemy equipment in another direction and naturally we understand that he (Ukraine) will try to strike in this direction. Right now I won't say where," said Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of a Chechen unit fighting for Russia in Kursk.

UKRAINIAN GAMBLE

Independent military analyst Franz-Stefan Gady said Ukraine was trying to hold on to its pocket of Kursk for as long as possible, even as Russia continued to push deeper into eastern Ukraine.

"There's a likelihood that we haven't seen the main thrust of this Ukrainian offensive operation just yet," he told Reuters. "We are essentially talking about platoon-sized, company-sized assaults with fairly limited gains thus far. It's fair to assume that there are several hundred Ukrainian troops involved in this assault."

It remained to be seen if Kyiv's forces could open up another axis of advance, Gady added.

Ukrainian and Western assessments suggest about 11,000 troops from Russian ally North Korea have been deployed in the Kursk region to support Moscow's forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday more than 1,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded. Reuters does not have access to the Kursk war zone and cannot verify casualty figures.

Reacting to the new Ukrainian offensive, the United States, Britain and the European Union have reaffirmed their support for Kyiv.

"Ukraine has the right to defend itself, and under international law, this right extends beyond its borders," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a statement to Reuters.

"Moscow's unlawful war against Ukraine has included numerous Russian attacks originating from the Kursk region. So Russian military forces there are legitimate targets under international law."

A U.S. State Department spokesperson said on Sunday: "We are committed to putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position on the battlefield, including by surging security assistance and utilizing all available resources authorized by the Congress."

Britain said it would support Ukraine for "as long as it takes".

***

kt comments:

Indeed, Anglo-American policy continues to be "We'll fight Russia to the LAST UKRAINIAN". 😒😒😔😔😖😖