Ukraine launches new offensive in Kursk, Russia

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

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 an 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 new attack.

NBC News could not independently verify the claims, and it was not immediately clear how significant the assault was.

"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 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, according to Russia's RIA state news agency.

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.

While Kyiv's forces have largely resisted Russian attempts to expel them from Kursk, they have lost more than 40% of the 380 square miles of Kursk that they seized in August, according to The Associated Press.

And they have since been on the defensive as the Kremlin's military pushes to retake more territory there and seize new land by advancing across the war's eastern front lines.

The Ukrainian military said Saturday that the "hottest" front was near Pokrovsk, an important road and rail hub Russia has been pressing toward for months.

The new Kursk offensive comes as Ukraine positions itself for the likelihood of Trump pushingfor a peace deal with Moscow, which has raised fears Kyiv could be pressured into unfavorable compromises.

And while many Ukrainians want the war, now in its third year, to end, there are concerns that a truce could allow Russian President Vladimir Putin to regroup and launch further attacks when he deems it advantageous.

If truce negotiations are to take place, Ukraine wants to do so from a position of strength, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has remained dogged in his rhetoric.

Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Saturday that Russian forces had lost "up to a battalion of infantry, North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers"in one day of battles in Kursk, the latest claim from Kyiv or its backers that North Korean troops have suffered heavy losses.

But the scale of Ukraine's latest offensive in Kursk is still unclear.

The accounts from the Defense Ministry and the bloggers said fighting was concentrated just north of a highway that runs from Sudzha, near the border, to Kursk, the regional capital.

One influential blogger, Yuri Podolyaka, called Ukraine's attack a "long-anticipated last-hope counteroffensive."

"Fighting is ongoing on the approaches to Berdin. Intense battles are underway, and the enemy is advancing seriously," he said.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said in its statement that Ukraine had launched an assault toward the village of Berdin, some 16 miles from Sudzha. The attack included tanks, a mine-clearing vehicle, armored combat vehicles and paratroopers, it said. But Podolyaka said this was most likely a Ukrainian distraction maneuver, possibly to prepare a strike on Glushkovo, further west.

Cautioning against premature conclusions, one Western analyst said it was too early to tell "how significant or not this actually is," and warned against relying on Russian information.

"Ukraine's military has been characteristically tight-lipped about current developments, as experience shows this is key to success," said Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow with the London-based think tank Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program. "This leaves the field open for Russian propaganda and disinformation to spread their version of events." The true picture, he told NBC News, "will only become clear later."

Giles also said that while North Korean support in Russia was going "about as badly as anybody predicted," Russia's ally remained committed to the cause, while Ukraine's main backer was now a flight risk.

"Both Russia and Ukraine have coalitions of backers keeping them in the fight," he said. "The key difference is that Russia's coalition appears to provide what Moscow needs, when it needs it — whereas with the arrival in power of Donald Trump, the core member of Ukraine's team may be about to pull the rug from under it by curtailing aid altogether."