Moscow has stepped up attacks on Ukrainian forces fighting to hold the Kursk enclave and increased pressure in the eastern Donetsk region, top Ukrainian army commander Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Tuesday, the 17th of December, reports Reuters.
“For the third day now, the enemy is carrying out intensive attacks in the Kursk region,” Syrskyi said. He added that Russia was “actively” using North Korean troops, which were suffering significant losses.
A US military official said that several hundred North Korean soldiers had been injured or killed in the Kursk region,
ranging from low-level to “near-top” ranks.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces announced late last night that its forces had repelled 42 Russian attacks in the Kursk region. An earlier report said that the number of combat clashes had risen to 68 in 24 hours, compared to around 40 per day last week.
Syrskyi said fighting was also escalating in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian forces are advancing at their fastest pace this year. He told government and regional officials that Russian troops continue to concentrate attacks on Pokrovska and Kurahovo.
The Russian Ministry of Defence announced that its forces had captured the village of Khanivka, north of Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian popular military blog “Deep State” also reported that Russian troops are in control of Hanivka.
The Ukrainian army general staff did not mention the village but said in a late night report that its forces had repelled 23 out of 35 Russian attacks in the area.
In north-eastern Toretsk, which has been under Russian attack for several weeks, Russia is sending waves of troops towards Ukrainian troops defending a coal mine, military spokeswoman Anastasia Bobovnikova said on state television.
The escalation of fighting comes ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month. Trump said on Monday that Ukraine must be ready to make a deal with Russia to end the nearly three-year war.
Trump’s next envoy to Ukraine will travel to Kyiv and other European capitals in early January, according to two sources familiar with the planning of the trip.