Zelenskiy says 15,000 Russian troops killed in battles in Kursk
- 7 January, 11:36
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said 15,000 Russian troops were killed in Russia’s Kursk region amid Ukraine’s incursion in August. "During the Kursk opertion, the enemy has already lost 38,000 of their soldiers... with nearly 15,000 of these losses being irreversible,” Zelenskiy said. Ukraine launched its surprise incursion inside Russia’s Kursk in August last year.
Last weekend Zelenskiy claimed “up to a battalion” of Russian and North Korean troops in Kursk in the past week, followed by the Russian Defence Ministry’s confirmation that Ukrainian troops had launched a surprise attack on Kursk region. Ukrainian side claimed capturing several districts in Kursk, although these reports were not verified by Moscow.
Ukraine launched surprise assault on Russia’s Kursk region last August, in the largest assault on Russian territory since the end of World War II. Ukraine’s intensified attacks on Kursk come amid Russia’s efforts to push deeper into eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian military on Tuesday said it was clinging to the part of strategic town of Kurakhove in eastern Donetsk region that has been partially captured by Russia.
"Ukrainian troops are holding on in the western part of the town, on the western outskirts of the town," Victor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Khortytsia army unit, said in an interview to local media. "They are actually trying to dismantle the town brick by brick," Tregubov said.
The military official accused Russia of using scorched-earth tactics to "completely destroy" it.
