KYIV, (Reuters) – Ukraine said yesteday its hard-pressed military was battling 50,000 troops in Russia’s Kursk region to its north, while also scrambling to reinforce two besieged fronts in the east and bracing to meet an infantry assault in the south.
The escalating fighting along a more than 1,000 km (620 miles) front line is stretching Ukraine’s already outnumbered troops at a critical moment after Donald Trump won the U.S. election, raising the prospect of possible talks with Russia.
Russia occupies a fifth of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin has said he wants Kyiv to drop ambitions to join the NATO military alliance and retreat from four Ukrainian regions that he partially holds, something Kyiv says is tantamount to capitulation.
Ukraine’s armed forces commander General Oleksandr Syrskyi said he travelled to the front in Russia’s Kursk region where a surprise Ukrainian incursion carved out a chunk of land in August that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said could be used as a bargaining chip.
“(Russian forces) are trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into the territory we control,” he said on Telegram.
Some U.S. military analysts have questioned the rationale of the Kursk operation, which extended an already long front line, creating more strain for Kyiv.
Ukraine says Russia has deployed 11,000 North Korean troops to the Kursk region and that they have already been involved in clashes, urging the West to respond robustly.
Moscow neither denies nor confirms their presence.
Syrskyi said the Kursk operation had drawn in crack Russian fighters and relieved pressure that would have been brought to bear on several important outposts in the east where Russia has been making gains at its fastest clip since 2022.
