Kyiv forces who have launched a fresh offensive inside Russia are stopping Vladimir Putin from deploying more troops to seize more land in Ukraine, says Volodymyr Zelensky.
Ukraine’s president claimed that his troops were “actively destroying Russian military potential” in the Kursk region of Russia.
Military analysts said Ukrainian soldiers were “continuing intensified offensive operations” in this western part of Russia and had made “tactical advances”.
They seized a swathe of Kursk in a surprise attack in the summer.
In an overnight address, Mr Zelensky said: “Today marks exactly five months since the start of our actions in the Kursk region, and we continue to maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory, actively destroying Russian military potential there.
“Since the beginning of the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost over 38,000 troops in this area alone, including approximately 15,000 irrecoverable losses.”
He added: “The Russians have deployed their strong units to the Kursk region. Soldiers from North Korea are involved there.
“What’s important is that the occupier cannot currently redirect all this force to other directions, in particular the Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv, or Zaporizhzhia regions.”
The Ministry of Defence in Moscow claimed Russian forces had repelled the first wave of the new Ukrainian offensive in Kursk on Sunday, and that the main force had been destroyed near the settlement of Berdin, close to a road running northeast toward the city of Kursk.
But the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, messaged: “Ukrainian forces recently made tactical advances amid continued intensified offensive operations in the Ukrainian salient in Kursk Oblast on January 6.”
Mr Zelensky’s claims of Russian fatalities and wounded could not be independently verified and other reports suggested Ukrainian troops had suffered heavy losses in the new offensive.
Putin is believed to be seeking to grab as much of eastern Ukraine as possible before Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20, having said he could end the conflict in a day.
Moscow said Russian forces had made important gains in eastern Ukraine, including the capture of the town of Kurakhove.
Outgoing president Joe Biden allowed Kyiv to fire long range missiles, supplied by the West, into Russia after thousands of North Korean troops were deployed to join Putin’s war effort.
The North Korean troops were said to have been so poorly trained that Russian commanders delayed throwing them into battle and now that they are engaged in fighting they are reported to be suffering heavy casualties.
