Ukraine goes on offense in Russia's Kursk region

Ukrainian soldiers prepare to enter Russia's Kursk region

(Image credit: Serhiy Morgunov / For The Washington Post via Getty Images)

published 6 January 2025

What happened

Ukraine launched a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region Sunday, Moscow and Kyiv said. Ukrainian forces had captured about 500 square miles of the western Russian province in a surprise incursion in August, but Russian and North Korean troops are believed to have retaken 40-50% of that area.

Who said what

"Good news," Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said on Telegram. "The Russians are getting what they deserve in the Kursk region." Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces had repelled Ukraine's counterattack, but Russian military bloggers "indicated that Moscow's forces faced significant pressure," The Associated Press said.

What next?

Ukraine's "unexpected success in biting off and retaining a slice of Russian territory could boost its negotiating position" in possible peace talks this year, Reuters said, but the incursion also "weakened" Kyiv's "defense of its own eastern regions," where Russia is grinding out slow but steady gains.

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Some American skeptics of Ukraine's Kursk campaign have "changed their assessment" as "Russian casualties mounted" in the region, The New York Times said. Zelenskyy said Saturday "the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroops" in fighting near one Kursk village.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.