Russia repels Ukrainian counterattack in Kursk region – MOD
Russian forces have repelled a Ukrainian counterattack as part of a more general advance of Moscow's troops in Kursk Region, the country’s Defense Ministry has said.
Ukraine launched the assault with the goal of “stopping the advance of Russian troops,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The Ukrainians struck at around 9am local time, according to the ministry, with two tanks, a mine clearing vehicle and 12 armored combat vehicles carrying assault troops.
The operation was directed at the hamlet of Berdin, located to the north-east of the town of Sudzha, the statement read.
The Russian artillery and air force “have delivered defeat to the assault group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” it added.
Kiev lost two tanks, a mine clearing unit and seven armored combat vehicles in the failed attack, the military claimed. “The operation to destroy the Ukrainian units continues,” it added.
Over the past 24 hours, Kiev has lost up to 340 servicemen, four tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, four armored personnel carriers and 12 armored combat vehicles in the fighting in Russia’s Kursk Region, the statement read.
On August 6, Ukraine launched an incursion into the Kursk Region, marking the largest attack on internationally recognized Russian territory since the escalation of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. The area under the control of Kiev’s forces, however, has steadily been shrinking since then, with the pace of the Russian advance accelerating in recent weeks.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev’s total losses in the five months since the launch of its incursion have reached over 49,000 servicemen, 273 tanks, 209 infantry fighting vehicles, 153 armored personnel carriers, and hundreds of other pieces of equipment, including 13 US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.
During his end-of-year press-conference last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said of the Ukrainian troops in Kursk Region that “we will undoubtedly drive them out. There is no alternative.”
Putin also stressed that “there was no strategic military sense for the Ukrainian armed forces to enter Kursk Region or to hold their position there as they are doing, deploying their elite assault groups and units to no avail.”
