Russian Army Bloggers Say Kursk’s New Attack Came Here ‘Like a Bolt of Blue’
North Korean soldiers have been “brought in again” to fight at the frontline in the Kursk region after reports that foreign soldiers were withdrawn following their mounting losses, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.
In his nightly video address yesterday, Mr Zelensky said: “There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas … the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again.
”He said a “significant number” of opposing forces have been eliminated, adding that “we’re talking hundreds of Russian and North Korean servicemen”.
It comes as Ukraine launched a new assault inside Russia’s Kursk oblast, expanding its incursion into Russian territory by as much as three miles.
Kyiv’s new incursion came on the six-month anniversary of its first attack inside Kursk, with one Russian military blogger describing it as coming “like a bolt from the blue”.
The incursion was also reported by the Russian defence ministry, which said Ukrainian troops and armoured vehicles had launched several waves of attacks near the villages of Ulanok and Cherkasskaya Konopelka.
Next week, Donald Trump is likely to meet Mr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine’s war to repel Russian invaders.
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Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed on Friday that it has taken control of the strategic coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. However, Ukraine’s military denied the city had been captured and reported heavy fighting in and around it.
Russia calls the city, which had a pre-war population of around 30,000 people, by its Soviet-era name of Dzerzhinsk, and says Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it is located, is now part of Russia, a claim Kyiv rejects as absurd.
Russian forces, after initially failing to advance on the capital Kyiv after its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, are concentrating on capturing Donbas, made up of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Toretsk has been one of the focal points of the advance along with other logistical hubs like Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka to the northwest and Pokrovsk further west.
The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in a late evening statement, said Russian forces had launched 10 attacks on Ukrainian positions in the Toretsk sector.
“The occupiers’ main efforts in attacks were concentrated near the city of Toretsk,” it said. “Ukrainian servicemen repelled all enemy attacks.”
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Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Friday it had seized the strategic coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine. However, the Ukrainian military denied that the city had been captured and reported by heavy fighting in and around it.
Russia calls the city, which had a pre-war population of about 30,000 people, through its Soviet-era call Dzerzhinsk, and says the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where it is located, is now Russia’s, a claim Kyiv dismisses as absurd.
Russian forces, after all, advancing on the capital Kyiv after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, are focused on capturing the Donbas, which consist of the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Toretsk has been one of the focal themes of the advance along with logistics hubs such as Kramatorsk and Kostyantynivka to the northwest and Pokrovsk Extra West.
The general staff of the Ukrainian army, in the evening, said that Russian forces had introduced 10 attacks on Ukrainian posts in the Toretsk sector.
“The main efforts of the occupiers in the attacks were concentrated near the city of Toretsk,” he said. “The Ukrainian army repelled all enemy attacks. “
A few walks past a residential building destroyed through shelling in Kostyantynivka, eastern Donetsk region
A guy prepares to climb into the windows of a residential building that broke down in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region
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