Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia has fired tens of thousands of Shaheds at Ukraine since it invaded just over four years ago. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region. File
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence has said.

The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, on Thursday (December 27, 2024) said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in the Kursk region. It marked the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to help it in the almost 3-year war.

The casualty disclosure came as the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, dealing a significant blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine, where they were pressing a slow-moving offensive.

The Russian army has been able to reclaim some territory in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, but has failed to fully dislodge them.

At the same time, Russia has sought to break Ukraine’s resistance with waves of strikes with cruise missiles and drones against Ukraine’s power grid and other infrastructure.

The latest attack on Christmas morning involved 78 missiles and 106 drones, striking power facilities, Ukraine’s air force said. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones and jammed 52 other drones.

On Thursday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 31 exploding drones. Twenty were shot down and another 11 didn’t reach their target due to jamming, the Ukrainian air force said.

As part of the daily barrage, Russian forces also struck a central market in Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region with a drone, wounding eight people, according to local authorities.

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened Thursday that Russia could again hit Ukraine with the new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile that was first used in a Nov 21 strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Speaking to reporters, Putin said Russia has just a few Oreshnik missiles, but added that it wouldn’t hesitate to use them on Ukraine.

“We aren’t in a rush to use them, because those are powerful weapons intended for certain tasks,” he said. “But we wouldn’t exclude their use today or tomorrow if necessary.” Putin said Russia has launched serial production of the new weapon and reaffirmed a plan to deploy some of Oreshnik missiles to Russia’s neighbor and ally Belarus. Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko told reporters Thursday that his country could host 10 or more.

Ukraine struck back with drone strikes of its own. Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications said the military struck a plant in Kamensk-Shakhtynsky in Russia’s southern Rostov region that produces propellant for ballistic missiles.

“This strike is part of a comprehensive campaign to weaken the capabilities of the Russian armed forces to carry out terrorist attacks against Ukrainian civilians,” it said in a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrive at the train station in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, September 11, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy arrived in Kyiv on a joint visit Wednesday (September 11, 2024), as Ukraine presses the West to allow it to use long-range missiles against Russia.

The top diplomats reached the Ukrainian capital by train hours after the U.S. presidential debate during which Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump sparred over the 2 1/2-year war in Ukraine.

Mr. Blinken travelled from London, where he accused Iran of providing Russia with Fath-360 short-range ballistic missiles, calling the move a “dramatic escalation” of the war.

For months, Ukraine has been requesting approval to use long-range weapons from the United States and Western allies to strike targets in Russia and is expected to press harder given Russia’s latest reported weapons acquisition.

Also Read: Trump vows to end Russia-Ukraine war if elected as U.S. President

“If we are allowed to destroy military targets or weapons prepared by the enemy for attacks on Ukraine, it would certainly bring more safety for our civilians, our people, and our children,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a news conference in Kyiv on Tuesday (September 10, 2024). “We are working towards this and will continue to push for it every day.”

Referring to the missiles from Iran, he added, “Russia’s use of weapons from its terrorist allies to strike at Ukraine continues their genocidal war and terrorism on our territory. We must be able to respond to such terrorism in kind by destroying military targets on their territory to ensure greater safety for our citizens.”

Wednesday’s (September 11, 2024) visit comes ahead of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s upcoming trip to Washington, where he will meet President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday (September 13, 2024).

Russian airstrikes, mostly aimed at crippling Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, have intensified in recent weeks with nightly missile and drone attacks.

As Mr. Blinken and Mr. Lammy arrived in Kyiv, the U.K. announced it was banning 10 commercial ships it accuses of illicitly transporting Russian oil in violation of international sanctions. The U.K. government said the vessels would be barred from British ports and could be detained if they enter.

Moscow, Russia:

Moscow on Saturday launched a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s biggest cross-border offensive in the two-and-a-half-year conflict.

Ukrainian units stormed across the border into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack and have advanced several kilometres, according to independent analysts.

Russia has deployed additional troops and equipment, including tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units to stop the advancing troops.

Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting “counter-terror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions … in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the enemy’s sabotage groups.”

Under Russian law, security forces and the military are given sweeping emergency powers during “counter-terror” operations.

Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints are introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.

The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilise the situation in a number of regions of our country.”

It called Ukraine’s incursion a “terrorist attack” and said Kyiv’s troops had wounded civilians and destroyed residential buildings.

Ukrainian leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation, and the United States, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it was not informed of the plans in advance.

But President Volodymyr Zelensky has appeared to tout his troops’ early successes, saying earlier this week that Russia must “feel” the consequences of the full-scale offensive it has waged against Ukraine since February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry published footage on Saturday of tank crews firing on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, as well as an overnight air strike, after it said Friday it had deployed yet more units to the border region.

It also said it had downed 26 Ukrainian drones that tried to attack the region overnight.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 14
| Photo Credit: AP

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv on May 14 in an unannounced diplomatic mission to reassure Ukraine that it has American support as it struggles to defend against increasingly intense Russian attacks.

The visit comes less than a month after Congress approved a long-delayed foreign assistance package that sets aside $60 billion in aid for Ukraine, much of which will go toward replenishing badly depleted artillery and Air Defense systems.

On his fourth trip to Kyiv since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Mr. Blinken will underscore the Biden administration’s commitment to Ukraine’s defense and long-term security, U.S. officials said. They noted that since President Joe Biden signed the aid package late last month, the administration has already announced $1.4 billion in short-term military assistance and $6 billion in longer-term support.

It is “trying to really accelerate the tempo” of U.S. weapon shipments to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

“What I am going to suggest is that the level of intensity being exhibited right now in terms of moving stuff is at a 10 out of 10”, Sullivan told reporters at a White House briefing May 13.

Artillery, Air Defense interceptors and long-range ballistic missiles have already been delivered, some of them already to the front lines, said a senior U.S. official traveling with the secretary on an overnight train from Poland.

Blinken will “send a strong signal of reassurance” to Ukrainian leaders and civil society figures he will meet during his two-day visit, said the official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity ahead of Blinken’s meetings.

In a statement released after Blinken’s arrival, the State Department said he would meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian officials “to discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery.”

Delays in U.S. assistance, particularly since Israel’s war with Hamas began to preoccupy top administration officials, triggered deep concerns in Kyiv and Europe. Blinken, for example, has visited the Middle East seven times since the Gaza conflict began in October. His last trip to Kyiv was in September.

The U.S. official added that Blinken also would give a speech later on May 14 extolling Ukraine’s “strategic successes” in the war. It is intended to complement a Blinken address last year in Helsinki, Finland, deriding Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow’s strategic failures in launching the war.

Since the Helsinki speech, however, Russia has intensified its attacks, most noticeably as the U.S. House sat on the aid package for months without action, forcing a suspension in the provision of most U.S. assistance. Those attacks have increased in recent weeks as Russia has sought to take advantage of Ukrainian shortages in manpower and weapons while the new assistance is in transit.

Top Biden administration officials and Ukrainian National security officials held a call Monday “about the situation on the front, about the capabilities that they are most in need of, and a real triage effort to say, ’Get us this stuff this fast so that we can be in a position to effectively defend against the Russian onslaught,” Sullivan said.

Zelenskyy said over the weekend that “fierce battles” are taking place near the border in eastern and northeastern Ukraine as outgunned and outnumbered Ukrainian soldiers try to push back a significant Russian ground offensive.

The Kremlin’s forces are aiming to exploit Ukrainian weaknesses before a big batch of new military aid for Kyiv from the U.S. and European partners arrives on the battlefield in the coming weeks and months, Ukrainian commanders and analysts say. That makes this period a window of opportunity for Moscow and one of the most dangerous for Kyiv in the two-year war, they say.

The new Russian push in the northeastern Kharkiv region and a drive into the eastern Donetsk region come after months when the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line barely budged. In the meantime, both sides have used long-range strikes in what largely became a war of attrition.

The senior U.S. official said despite some recent setbacks, Ukraine could still claim significant victories. Those include reclaiming some 50% of the territory Russian forces took in the early months of the war, boosting its economic standing and improving transportation and trade links, not least through military successes in the Black Sea.

The official acknowledged that Ukraine faces “a tough fight” and is “under tremendous pressure” but argued that Ukrainians “will become increasingly more confident” as the new U.S. and other Western assistance begins to surge.

Mr. Blinken said on May 12 that there was “no doubt” the monthslong delay in aid caused problems but that “we are doing everything we can to rush this assistance out there”.

“It’s a challenging moment,” he told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We are not going anywhere, and neither are more than some 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine. That will continue, and if Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine, outlast its supporters, he’s wrong”.

A view shows damaged buildings at the site of a Russian drone strikes, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Odesa, Ukraine on April 23, 2024. Photo: Mayor of Odesa Hennadii Trukhanov via Telegram, via Reuters

Russia launched a drone attack on Ukraine that injured nine people in the Black Sea port of Odesa, four of them children, and also targeted Kyiv, the capital, Ukraine’s military officials said early on April 23.

The injured children, which include two infants, have been hospitalised, as well as three of the injured adults, the Governor of the Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Several residential buildings in the city were damaged and caught fire, he said. At least 14 apartments were damaged, the City Administration added.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched a total of 16 attack drones targeting Ukraine and two short-range Iskander ballistic missiles.

Air Defence systems destroyed 15 of the drones over Ukraine’s southern regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv, the central region of Cherkasy and the capital region of Kyiv, the Air Force said on Telegram. It did not say what happened to the missiles.

All the drones Russia launched on Kyiv were destroyed, Serhiy Popko, the head of the capital’s military administration, said on Telegram, adding that there were no reports of damage or injuries from the attack.

Also on Telegram, Mykolaiv’s Governor, Vitaly Kim, said wreckage from a downed drone damaged a commercial infrastructure building.

A prosecutor examines fragments of Russian missiles that were collected to investigate Russia’s military crimes in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on March 18, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukrainian forces facing a lack of munitions and manpower are digging in to resist Russian attack, mirroring the invaders’ strategy and showing Kyiv expects a drawn-out war.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that Kyiv’s troops were in an “ongoing process” of building around 2,000 kilometre of defensive lines.

Britain’s Defence Ministry said that the works included “anti-tank dragon’s teeth and ditches, infantry trenches, minefields and fortified defensive positions” in a post on X.

“The establishment of major defensive positions is indicative of the attritional character of the conflict… any attempt to conduct breaching operations will likely be accompanied with high losses,” the ministry added.

Built in 2023, Russia’s so-called “Surovikin Line” on occupied Ukrainian soil stalled Kyiv’s counteroffensive with its three layered defence in depth.

Such barriers are designed both to wear down enemy forces and prevent them holding ground even if they succeed in breaking through.

Also read: Russia systematically tortures Ukraine POWs, U.N. commission says

Ukraine’s version may be less elaborate and deep, but is needed to compensate for its ammunition shortage.

“Already, Ukrainian officials say that time is the key factor preventing them from building something resembling the… Surovikin line,” said Ivan Klyszcz, a researcher at Estonia’s International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS).

“Ammunition scarcity and diminishing morale have placed Ukraine squarely on the defensive,” he added.

Minimal gains

Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the second half of 2023, planned with backing from allies including the U.S., left Kyiv with minimal territorial gains and heavy losses. As the war has dragged on, defenders’ advantage over attackers has become starker than in many previous conflicts.

Mr. Zelenskyy’s lines “are designed to maximise the cost of casualties and fatalities for the Russians,” said Seth Jones, vice president of U.S.-based think-tank CSIS.

But Alexander Khramchikhin, a Russian military expert, said it was “proof that Ukraine has realised its offensive failed,”.

“Their success will depend on their quality” and on how much the construction effort is hobbled by Ukraine’s still-endemic corruption, he added.

“Do they have the manpower to build and defend them?” asked Vasily Kashin, of Moscow’s Higher School of Economics.

“Russia’s army has already broken through stronger Ukrainian fortifications at Avdiivka,” he added, referring to the frontline town in eastern region of Donetsk that fell to the Russians in mid-February.

Kyiv may be bowing to the present realities of the conflict, but its objective remains liberating its territory in the eastern Donbas region and the Crimean peninsula, which Russia took in 2014.

Ukrainian leaders hope that as the war wears on, Western sanctions will hobble Russia’s ability to sustain the effort.

Meanwhile in Moscow, the hope is that Western military and financial aid to Ukraine will dry up.

Both sides’ conjectures point to the same strategy for now: holding ground.

(from left) Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Donald Tusk at a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on March 15.
| Photo Credit: AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview published on March 16 evening that Western ground operations in Ukraine might be necessary “at some point”, days after meeting with German and Polish leaders.

Last month Mr. Macron refused to rule out putting troops on the ground in Ukraine, which prompted a stern response from Berlin and other European partners.

But the French President has not recanted from his position, but stressed that Western allies would not take the initiative.

“Maybe at some point — I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative — we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” Mr. Macron told newspaper Le Parisien in an interview conducted on March 15.

“France’s strength is that we can do it”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacted angrily to Mr. Macron’s earlier refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine and his pointed comments urging allies not to be “cowards”.

Mr. Macron met his German and Polish counterparts in Berlin on Friday, in a show of solidarity behind Kyiv.

After the meeting, Mr. Macron said the three countries of the so-called Weimar Triangle were “united” in their aim to “never let Russia win”.

Former Ukraine Army chief Valery Zaluzhny.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has approved the candidacy of former Army chief Valery Zaluzhny as Ambassador to Great Britain, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine sent a request to the British side for an agreement,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Mr. Zaluzhny, widely seen as a national hero for overseeing Ukraine’s war effort throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, was replaced by ground forces commander Oleksandr Syrsky in February.

Ukraine has not had an Ambassador in Britain since Mr. Zelenskyy dismissed former envoy Vadym Prystaiko in July 2023 after he publicly criticised the President.

On Thursday British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps visited Kyiv, Mr. Zelenskyy said on social media platform X.

‘Bolstering defence’

“Our primary focus was on bolstering Ukraine’s air defence and long-range capabilities, as well as meeting other urgent needs for weapons and ammunition and developing joint weapon production,” he said.

Mr. Zaluzhny was not seen in the images of the meeting shared by the President.

The UN’s cultural organisation placed World Heritage Sites in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv on its “in danger” list, saying they are at risk from the war sparked by Russia’s invasion of the country. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

The UN’s cultural organisation on Friday placed World Heritage Sites in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Lviv on its “in danger” list, saying they are at risk from the war sparked by Russia’s invasion.

The decision, taken at UNESCO’s annual world heritage committee meeting in Riyadh, is a step towards better protection of the historic sites, the UN’s cultural organisation said.

Their inclusion on the List of World Heritage in Danger “also opens the door to additional financial and technical aid in order to implement new emergency measures”, it said in a statement.

UNESCO said it had added Kyiv’s Saint Sophia Cathedral and the medieval buildings of the city’s Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery site to the list “due to the threat of destruction the Russian offensive poses”.

The decision had been taken because “optimal conditions are no longer met to fully guarantee the protection” of the sites “threatened by potential danger due to the war”.

The two historic sites have “remained under permanent threat since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022”, the statement added.

Kyiv’s Saint Sophia cathedral dates back to the 11th century and is one of the city’s best-known landmarks.

Lviv, the western Ukrainian city near the Polish border, was founded in the late Middle Ages and its historic centre was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998.

The move came after a January decision by UNESCO to add the centre of Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa to the World Heritage List.

In July, Odesa’s city centre and an Orthodox cathedral were damaged in a Russian strike condemned by UNESCO.