Ukraine launches surprise attack on southern Russia
- 6 January, 10:59
Ukrainian troops launched a surprise offensive on Russia’s Kursk region from different fronts on Sunday amid Russia’s relentless attacks on eastern Ukraine.
The reports of the attack first appeared in the accounts of Russian military bloggers before Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the surprise offensive on Sunday. In a statement posted on Telegram, Russia's defence ministry said: "At around 9am Moscow time, in order to stop the offensive by the Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counter-attack by an assault detachment consisting of two tanks, one counter-obstacle vehicle, and 12 armoured fighting vehicles." The ministry said Ukrainian troops were heading to the settlement of Berdin.
The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said there "was good news from Kursk Region" and that Russia was "getting what it deserves". Andriy Kovalenko, a senior official with Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council said the surprise attacked was launched on multiple fronts.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia and North Korea lost "up to a battalion of infantry" during the fighting in Kursk region this week. “In the battles today and yesterday in the area of just one village, Makhnovka, in Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion worth of North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers. And this is tangible," Zelenskiy said.
Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region started in early August and prompted Kremlin to deploy thousands of North Korean troops in the region. According to Ukrainian and Western reports, more than 12,000 Pyongyang troops are fighting alongside Russian soldiers in Kursk. Russia has been pushing into Kursk in an attempt to regain the region before the peace negotiations and has regained back half of the territories captured by Ukraine in Kursk.
