Ukraine-Russia latest: Kyiv disputes that Putin’s forces have captured frontline Kurakhove as Kursk battle rages
Ukraine’s general staff says it is conducting new offensives in the Russian border region of Kursk
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Your support makes all the difference.Ukraine's army has said it is clinging on to part of Kurakhove, a strategic town in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk that Russia claims to have captured.
The Ukrainian army accused Russia of using scorched-earth tactics to "completely destroy" it.
"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, which is fighting in the area, said in an interview on national TV. "They are actually trying to dismantle the town brick by brick," Mr Tregubov said.
It comes as Russia has suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in its border Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 of Vladimir Putin’s troops killed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed.
“During the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost 38,000 of their soldiers... with nearly 15,000 of these losses being irreversible,” Mr Zelensky said. Ukraine launched its surprise incursion inside Russia’s Kursk in August last year.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian soldiers renewed their offensive in a bid to gain as much territory as possible before Donald Trump enters office in Washington.
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Nearly 15,000 Russians have been killed in Kursk region, says Zelensky
Russia has suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in southern Russia’s Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 killed, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“During the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost 38,000 of their soldiers in this direction alone, with nearly 15,000 of these losses being irreversible,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.
His remarks come a day after he said North Korea has lost more than 3,800 soldiers fighting in Kursk.
Ukraine launched a mass incursion into the Kursk region in August and has seized chunks of territory, though Russia’s military says it has recaptured much of that.
Ukrainian and Western assessments say some 11,000 North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces in the region. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Trump's Ukraine envoy postpones Kyiv trip until after inauguration
Donald Trump’s incoming Ukraine envoy has postponed a fact-finding trip to Kyiv and other European capitals until after the US president-elect’s inauguration on 20 January, sources said.
Retired Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, who is set to serve as Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, had initially planned a mission to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian leaders in early January, Reuters reported last month. His team was also setting up meetings with officials in other European capitals, including Rome and Paris.
But the trip, which would have marked the first time incoming Trump administration officials headed to Kyiv since the 5 November election, has been pushed back, according to four sources with knowledge of the trip’s planning.
Mr Kellogg is now expected to travel to Ukraine after Trump takes office, though no date has been set, the sources requesting anonymity said.
It was not immediately clear why the diplomat was delaying the trip.
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