Ukraine’s Zelensky says nearly 15,000 Russians have been killed in Kursk region

KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Jan 6 that Russia had suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in southern Russia’s Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 killed.

“During the Kursk operation, the enemy lost 38,000 of their soldiers in this direction alone, with nearly 15,000 of these losses being irreversible,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

Mr Zelensky, in his remarks, offered no proof of the figures he quoted for Russian losses.

Ukraine launched

a mass incursion into the Kursk region in August

and has seized chunks of territory, though Russia’s military has said it has recaptured much of that.

Ukraine said it launched

a new offensive

in the region on Jan 5 but has given few details.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say

some 11,000 North Korean troops

are fighting alongside Russian forces in the region. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Jan 6 that the Ukrainian advance had been foiled and the main force had been destroyed near the settlement of Berdin, close to a road running north-east towards the city of Kursk.

The ministry said Russian forces had made important gains in eastern Ukraine, including the capture of the town of Kurakhove.

Mr Zelensky made no mention of Kurakhove in his remarks.

He said Ukraine’s forces had established a buffer zone in the Kursk region, where Russia had transferred strong military units, and that had prevented Moscow from deploying those forces to key front-line areas in eastern Ukraine.

“Importantly, the occupiers cannot now direct all this force to our other directions, particularly to the Donetsk region, Sumy, Kharkiv region or Zaporizhzhia,” he said. REUTERS