Ukraine renews aggression in Russia.

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Ukrainian forces are pushing forward in several directions in Russia’s southern Kursk region, even as the military struggles to hold another position on the front line.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its army had repelled two Ukrainian strikes, while pro-war bloggers confirmed that Kiev’s forces were moving in Kursk. The renewed push comes after Ukraine was estimated to have lost nearly half of the 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory it held in August.

“Kursk region, good news, Russia is getting what it deserves,” Andriy Irmak, head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, said on Telegram.

The head of Ukraine’s counterintelligence center, the state communications agency, wrote on Telegram that the Russian side was under attack from “multiple directions” from the “surprising” attack and was experiencing “great anxiety.”

Ukrainian authorities did not immediately reveal the purpose of the new attack in Russia. But the operation will inevitably use expensive equipment and manpower in woefully short supply on the eastern front, where Moscow’s troops are advancing rapidly.

In the year By 2024, Russia will occupy less than 4,200 square kilometers, the Institute for War Studies, a Washington-based think tank, reported this week.

Most of these discoveries are in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where settlements under Russian occupation have become a daily occurrence.

even if Western military analysts Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk gave the country a much-needed morale boost, as its attempt to capture that territory — rather than capture and retreat Russian troops — exacerbated manpower shortages.

Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Sirsky, said in August that Russia would move troops from the east to defend its territory. But it soon became clear that Russia was determined to continue its offensive in the Donetsk region and would not move its key combat units to Kursk.

North Korea, a key ally of the Kremlin; He has sent thousands since. His own troops to the Kursk region to increase the Russian troops in the area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Saturday that hundreds of North Korean soldiers were killed in Kursk between Friday and Saturday. The Financial Times could not verify the claims.

Progress on the Eastern Front, however, came at a huge human cost to Russia. Luke Pollard, the UK’s under-secretary for defence, told parliament last month that the number of Russian casualties since the start of the war had exceeded 750,000.

Behind the front lines, Russia continues its daily bombing of Ukrainian towns, cities and energy infrastructure, mostly using its existing Iranian-designed attack drones. The country has been able to avoid long-term blackouts thanks to swift maintenance efforts, imports of electricity from Europe and a mild winter so far.

Zelensky said that in the first three days of the new year, Russia deployed more than 300 drones and 20 missiles.

On New Year’s Day, four Russian drones bypassed Kiev’s air defenses and struck the city center, including a building 100m from Ukraine’s presidential administration. According to electronic warfare experts, those attack drones used more advanced satellite navigation antennas.