Ukraine launched a surprise new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region on Sunday, aiming to strike back after months under pressure ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The assault appeared to be a major effort to seize new territory in the area, where Kyiv’s forces first swept across the border with a stunning incursion last August. Since then the Kremlin has retaken a chunk of its own land but struggled to fully expel the invading troops, even deploying thousands of North Korean soldiers in recent weeks.
Reports of the new offensive first emerged from the accounts of Russia’s influential military bloggers early Sunday, before officials in Kyiv and then Moscow’s defense ministry confirmed Ukrainian forces had launched a significant new effort to advance.
NBC News could not independently verify the claims.
“The Defense Forces are actively working,” Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said on Telegram. “The situation in the Kursk region seems to be causing significant concern among the Russians, as they were unexpectedly attacked on several fronts.”
Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, also remarked, “Kursk region, good news: Russia is getting what it deserves.”
Hours later Russian state media quoted the country’s defense ministry as saying that its troops had repelled two Ukrainian attacks in Kursk on Sunday.
“Overall, over the past 24 hours, the “North” group in the Kursk direction defeated the forces of 14 Ukrainian brigades and repelled two counterattacks,” the defense ministry said, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.
The offensive follows months of setbacks for Ukraine.
Since the surprise incursion into Russia in August, the U.S. ally’s military has been beset by low morale and manpower amid a barrage of Russian attacks.
Kyiv’s forces have largely resisted Russian attempts to expel them from Kursk, but they have been on the defensive as the Kremlin’s military pushes to retake territory there and seize new land by advancing across the war’s eastern frontlines.
