Russia Ukraine struggle stay updates: Russian and North Korean troops suffered vital losses in Kursk, Zelensky says | EUROtoday

Russian forces launched assaults close to town of Pokrovsk, a key strategic street and rail hub in Ukraine’s japanese Donetsk area, the Ukrainian navy stated on Saturday.

Capture of Pokrovsk might create critical issues for the Ukrainian military on the japanese entrance, and should enable Russia to advance its frontline to the west.

“The Pokrovsk direction remains the hottest and there the Russians attacked 34 times (in the past 24 hours) and tried to break through our defences south of Pokrovsk,” a spokesman for Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of forces instructed nationwide tv.

Russian forces search to chop off provide routes to Ukraine’s troops, the navy added. They ship small teams of troopers to settlements south of Pokrovsk to dam provides.

“They (Russians) don’t go directly into the city because it means heavy urban fighting. So they first try to bypass the city and interrupt the logistics chains,” Trehubov stated.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, denounced the drone strike that killed a Russian reporter in japanese Ukraine as “deliberate murder”.

Ms Zakharova described it as “another brutal crime in a series of bloody atrocities” of president Volodymyr Zelensky’s authorities “which openly resorts to terrorist methods to eliminate its ideological opponents”.

Data beforehand supplied by the Committee to Protect Journalists counted no less than 15 journalists killed since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A Russian guided bomb assault yesterday wounded 10 folks, together with two youngsters, in a village in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy area, close to the Russian border, native authorities stated.

The area borders Russia’s Kursk area and has been frequently shelled by Russian forces for months.

Video posted by president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed components of a constructing within the village of Svesa diminished to rubble. Rescue groups ferried residents out of the constructing on stretchers.

“An entire block of the building, from the ground to the fifth floors was destroyed,” Mr Zelensky stated in his nightly video tackle. “Neighbouring houses were also damaged.”

Mr Zelensky stated guided bomb strikes hit two different villages in Sumy area and likewise neighbouring Kharkiv area.

Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in combating in Russia’s southern Kursk area, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Saturday.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed within the Kursk area, the place Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August.

In his nightly video tackle, Mr Zelensky quoted a report from prime Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place close to the village of Makhnovka, not removed from the Ukrainian border.

“In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroops,” he stated. “This is significant.”

He did not present any particular particulars. A battalion can fluctuate in measurement however is mostly made up of a number of hundred troops.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed a reporter close to town of Donetsk in japanese Ukraine, Russian media outlet Izvestia stated on Saturday.

“The Ukrainian army launched a drone strike on a civilian car carrying Izvestia’s freelance correspondent Alexander Martemyanov,” the each day reported on its Telegram channel.

“The car was located far from the line of contact.”

Izvestia stated the automobile was travelling on a freeway linking Donetsk, the Russian-held foremost city of Donetsk area, and town of Horlivka to the north.

Currently, Russian forces are advancing within the east, slowly however certainly, and they’re shrinking Ukraine’s partial maintain of the border area of Kursk.

That the Russians haven’t been extra profitable is a testomony, above all else, to the resilience of Ukraine’s troops on the bottom, lots of whom have been combating repeatedly for years. Dysfunction within the Russian navy, with Mr Putin as its de facto commander-in-chief, is one other.

But US president Joe Biden has despatched the ultimate navy bundle of his tenure to Ukraine, ending the help (for now) of Kyiv’s most heavily-armed ally. US president-elect Donald Trump will quickly re-enter the White House on the promise of ending the combating altogether, even when that probably means rewarding Mr Putin for his unlawful land seize.

Russian fuel is now not flowing to EU states by Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an power route that has existed for the reason that finish of the Soviet Union in 1991.

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated the transfer means Russia can now not “earn billions on our blood”.

His power minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the fuel flows “in the interest of national security”.

“This is a historic event,” he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. “Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses.”

The deal had allowed for Russian fuel to journey by Ukraine’s pipeline networks into European international locations, primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

The Independent’s information correspondent Alicja Hagopian experiences:

A Ukrainian brigade educated in France and geared up with superior Western navy {hardware} has been disbanded after mass desertions.

About 1,700 troopers from the a hundred and fifty fifth Mechanised Brigade went absent with out go away earlier than the unit’s first deployment in japanese Ukraine, in keeping with The Telegraph.

The brigade, a high-profile initiative introduced by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and French president Emmanuel Macron final yr, was meant to showcase Western help however reportedly suffered from insufficient coaching and tools shortages.

Around 50 members of the unit, often known as the “Anne of Kyiv” brigade, went lacking throughout coaching in France, and the issue grew worse as over 1,700 troops finally went absent with out go away earlier than the unit’s first deployment in japanese Ukraine, the newspaper reported.

The unit’s preliminary battle in Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in japanese Ukraine’s Donetsk area, led to vital losses, together with tanks and armoured automobiles.Analysts have criticized Kyiv’s technique of forming new brigades as a substitute of reinforcing skilled models.

President-elect Donald Trump might be decisive within the consequence of the 34-month-old struggle with Russia and assist cease Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky stated.

Mr Zelensky, dealing with advances by Russian forces in japanese Ukraine, stated in an interview with Ukrainian tv that Mr Trump had instructed him he can be one of many first to go to Washington after the presidential inauguration this month.

The Ukrainian president additionally stated a precedence was to stabilise the frontline early within the new yr. Mr Putin, he stated, feared negotiations as they’d be tantamount to a defeat for Russia.

“He’s very strong and unpredictable, and I would really like to see President Trump’s unpredictability apply to Russia. I believe he really wants to end the war,” he stated. “Trump can be decisive. For us, this is the most important thing,” he stated in a televised interview.

“His qualities are indeed there,” Mr Zelensky stated of Mr Trump. “He can be decisive in this war. He is capable of stopping Putin or, to put it more fairly, help us stop Putin. He is able to do this.”

The United States expects to make bulletins about further safety help for Ukraine in coming days, White House spokesperson John Kirby stated on Friday.

Mr Kirby stated future bulletins have been anticipated after Washington final week introduced $5.9bn in further navy and price range help for Ukraine and a gathering of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Germany will likely be held on 9 January.

“You can also expect additional security assistance announcements coming with respect to Ukraine … in coming days,” he stated, with out offering any specifics.