Russia has massed “tens of thousands of troops” as part of a major effort to retake land in its Kursk region that was seized by Ukraine, according to the commander in chief of Kyiv's armed forces.
Oleksandr Syrskyi said Monday that Russian forces were "trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into the territory we control" in Kursk, where Ukraine's military has occupied swaths of territory since a surprise August incursion that turned the tables in the 2½-year war.
The push to retake territory comes as the two sides exchanged an intense wave of drone attacks that Ukraine said killed eight people, and after President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, which could upend the U.S. approach to the war. The Kremlin on Monday denied that Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Ukraine and its allies have warned a counteroffensive in Kursk was likely for weeks, and said that thousands of North Korean troops were among the force assembled by the Kremlin in Kursk.
“The importance of this operational area cannot be underestimated given the number of enemy troops concentrated there,” Syrskyi said in a post on Telegram, adding that soldiers were engaged in combat in the area. "If it were not for the steadfastness of our soldiers, these tens of thousands of enemies from the best Russian assault units would have stormed our positions" elsewhere on the front lines, he said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed in September that Ukraine had seized roughly 500 square miles of Russian territory, but its offensive has stalled in recent months after Putin promised to "squeeze" Ukrainian troops out of the country.
Russia had initially struggled to respond, and there seemed to be limited resources devoted to driving back the first invasion of Russian land since World War II.
But Zelenskyy said last week that about 11,000 North Korean soldiers were in the areas bordering Ukraine and were taking part in “combat against Ukrainian militaries.”
“There are losses; this is a fact,” he said
The Pentagon had confirmed earlier that some 10,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia for training and were presumed to be joining the fight against Ukraine, intensifying their partnership and alarming the United States and its allies.
As Russia continues its offensive, Ukraine is also reckoning with a shifting political landscape after its biggest backer elected a new president.
Trump has said he would be able to resolve Russia’s invasion before he even takes office, and has praised Putin while blaming Zelenskyy for the war.
Tech mogul Elon Musk briefly joined Trump‘s call with Zelenskyy last Wednesday, according to a source familiar with the matter. Zelenskyy described the call as "excellent."
However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday denied a Washington Post report, citing multiple unnamed sources, that Trump had spoken with Putin.
"There was no conversation,” Peskov claimed. "It is completely untrue. It is pure fiction, it is simply false information."
Russia's push in Kursk marks the latest escalation in fighting after the two countries exchanged a wave of drone strikes over the weekend.
Ukraine said heavy Russian shelling from Sunday through to Monday morning killed eight civilians in the country, including five in the city of Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.
Ukraine's Kherson, Donetsk and Sumy regions also experienced casualties, according to local officials.
The strikes come after Ukraine launched its largest drone attack on Moscow since the Kremlin's full-scale invasion began in 2022, injuring one person and forcing three major airports to divert flights.
Russia fired an unprecedented 145 drones against Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials said that at least two people were injured and buildings were damaged by Russian drone strikes on the southern region of Odesa. Zelenskyy said Monday that Ukraine has suffered $800 billion in damages as a result of Russian aggression.
Mykhailo Samus, a Ukrainian military analyst and director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, told NBC News that Putin may be rushing to take the Kursk region back now that he faces the prospect of negotiations with Trump and Zelenskyy.
“Kursk Oblast will be one of the one of the cards on the table used by President Zelenskyy, if you’re talking about the conditions of stopping the war or negotiating a cease-fire,” he said in a phone interview.
“It will be very difficult for Putin to explain to the Russian population, Russian elites, how it’s possible they are discussing Russian territory with the Americans. So I’m sure that next weeks will be very intensive battles,” he said.
Christopher Tuck, an expert in conflict and security at King’s College London, echoed Samus, saying North Korean troops had "accelerated Russia’s ability to conduct the offensive."
"The presence of North Korean troops has been an important enabler for this new offensive because these forces are likely to be able to provide the initial cannon fodder that Russia’s current style of warfare requires," he said.
"How long they will continue to be militarily effective is something that we don’t yet know."
