Russia said this on Sunday. Ukraine launched a new offensive in the Kursk region, an area in western Russia where Russian troops have been trying to drive out Ukrainian forces for the past five months.
Ukrainian troops crossed the border in a surprise incursion on August 6 and have managed to capture a part of it that could provide Kiev with a key bargaining chip in potential peace talks.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces were retaliating against Ukrainian forces, but some reports from Russian military bloggers suggested the Russian side was under heavy pressure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi's chief of office Andriy Yermak posted on Telegram that there was “good news” from Kursk, adding: “Russia is getting what it deserves.”
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's official Center Against Disinformation, wrote on Telegram that Russian soldiers were attacked in several locations.
The Russian statement said Ukraine launched an attack near the village of Berdin at around 0600 GMT with two tanks, a mine-sweeping vehicle and 12 armored fighting vehicles with paratroopers.
“Artillery and aviation of the Northern group of (Russian) forces defeated the attacking group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” it added.
Two Ukrainian attacks have been repelled, the statement said. Reuters could not independently confirm the situation on the ground.
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Reports from Russia's widely read war bloggers, who support Moscow's war in Ukraine but are often critical of failures and setbacks, indicate that the Ukraine invasion has cost Russian forces at least Kim was temporarily put on the defensive.
“Despite heavy enemy pressure, our units are holding the line bravely,” the Operativenye Svodki (Operational Reports) channel said in the first hours after the attack.
In a later update, another influential blogger, Yuri Podoliak, said Russian units had taken control of the situation after initial “mistakes” and encircled Ukrainian forces north of the highway leading to the regional capital Kursk. had taken
Kursk's acting governor, Alexander Khanstein, told people to rely only on official sources, and warned displaced residents not to return to unsafe areas without permission.
Ukraine and Western assessments say about 11,000 troops from Russia's ally North Korea have been deployed to the Kursk region to support Moscow's forces. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday: “Yesterday and today in battles near Makhnuka, just one village in the Kursk region, the Russian army has been defeated by North Korean infantry and a battalion of Russian paratroops. “
He did not provide specific details. A battalion can vary in size but usually consists of several hundred soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in response to a question in his annual marathon phone-in last month that Russia would definitely pull Ukrainian forces out of Kursk, but declined to set a date for when that would happen.
Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, but Ukraine's unexpected success in carving out and retaining a slice of Russian territory could boost its negotiating position as the two sides prepare for possible peace talks this year. .
Both are trying to improve their battleground positions before US President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on January 20. Trump has repeatedly said he will end the war soon, but without saying how.
By committing some of its most effective units to the Kursk offensive, Ukraine has, however, weakened the defenses of its eastern regions where Russian forces have advanced at their fastest pace since August 2022.