Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have captured the stronghold of Kurakhove after a monthslong battle, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Monday, adding the wrecked town to the Kremlin’s list of conquests during the almost three-year war.
However, the Ukrainian force defending Kurakhove dismissed the claim while acknowledging that Russian forces were attacking urban areas.
“Measures to identify and destroy enemy assault groups that are trying to infiltrate our battle formations are underway,” the local military command said on Telegram.
Photo: The Ukrainian Armed Forces via Reuters
Russia’s claim came a day after its defense ministry said Ukrainian forces had pressed new attacks in Russia’s Kursk border region.
Ukrainian officials usually comment on major battlefield defeats only days after Russia announces them.
The inauguration in two weeks of US president-elect Donald Trump has brought a new element of uncertainty and triggered an apparent effort by both sides to establish battlefield gains before any possible peace talks.
Trump has not detailed his plans for accomplishing his goal of ending the fighting, but his presence in the White House is likely to significantly affect how the war plays out.
Kurakhove is a stronghold for the Ukrainian army on the eastern front line in the partially occupied Donetsk region. It has an industrial zone, a thermal power plant and a reservoir and sits on a highway between eastern and southern Ukraine.
In November last year, The Associated Press reported from the town that about 7,000 to 10,000 people likely remained there. Its prewar population was about twice that.
The town has been under relentless attacks from artillery, multiple rocket launchers, powerful guided bombs and drones that have shattered buildings.
Meanwhile, Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment said in an assessment published on social platform X that there has been some cheering news for Ukraine.
“Ukraine is grinding down Russian forces. Russian gains are small relative to costs. There has been no collapse of the front,” Kofman wrote.
On the other hand, he said that “Ukraine is losing territory. The coldest part of the winter is yet ahead. The current theory of success is unclear, or what resources will be made available by the West in 2025.”
Russia has been driving westward in a slow and costly effort to capture all of Donetsk. Ukraine is short of troops on the front lines and is straining to hold back the bigger Russian army.
Russian forces are trying to close in on Pokrovsk, a key road junction and rail distribution center furnishing supplies to a broad span of the Ukrainian front line.
In 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which make up the Donbas industrial area, together with southeastern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. However, Russian forces do not fully control any of them.
Ukraine is keen to get new Western military aid delivered quickly, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday said he hoped more would be pledged this week at a meeting with Western partners in Germany.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has fired his national police chief, who gained attention for leading the separate arrests of former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte on orders of the International Criminal Court and televangelist Apollo Carreon Quiboloy, who is on the FBI’s most-wanted list for alleged child sex trafficking. Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin did not cite a reason for the removal of General Nicolas Torre as head of the 232,000-member national police force, a position he was appointed to by Marcos in May and which he would have held until 2027. He was replaced by another senior police general, Jose
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
POWER CONFLICT: The US president threatened to deploy National Guards in Baltimore. US media reports said he is also planning to station troops in Chicago US President Donald Trump on Sunday threatened to deploy National Guard troops to yet another Democratic stronghold, the Maryland city of Baltimore, as he seeks to expand his crackdown on crime and immigration. The Republican’s latest online rant about an “out of control, crime-ridden” city comes as Democratic state leaders — including Maryland Governor Wes Moore — line up to berate Trump on a high-profile political stage. Trump this month deployed the National Guard to the streets of Washington, in a widely criticized show of force the president said amounts to a federal takeover of US capital policing. The Guard began carrying
Ukrainian drone attacks overnight on several Russian power and energy facilities forced capacity reduction at the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant and set a fuel export terminal in Ust-Luga on fire, Russian officials said yesterday. A drone attack on the Kursk nuclear plant, not far from the border with Ukraine, damaged an auxiliary transformer and led to 50 percent reduction in the operating capacity at unit three of the plant, the plant’s press service said. There were no injuries and a fire sparked by the attack was promptly extinguished, the plant said. Radiation levels at the site and in the surrounding
RSS