Ukrainian defenders have repelled 27 Russian attacks in Russia's Kursk Oblast since the beginning of the day. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook, information as of 16:00 on 7 January Details: In addition,

Ukraine launches a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region, raising questions about its strategic goals and potential impact on the war's trajectory and upcoming peace talks.

Ukraine launched a fresh operation in Russia's southern Kursk region, Moscow said on Sunday, after Ukrainian officials and military bloggers reported new attacks from Kyiv in a region where Moscow is eager to reassert its grip.

"Such fire damage is an integral part of combat operations of Ukraine's Defense Forces units, which are engaged in combat operations on the territory of the Russian Federation," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.

Russian forces continue to make costly but consistent gains in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. They are steadily grinding down a pocket of resistance around the town of Kurakhove and are also fighting to envelop the larger nearby city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian soldiers and officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Russia had suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in southern Russia's Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 killed.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank that maps the frontline, said Ukraine had made advances into the southern outskirts of Berdin. It is to the northeast of the city of Sudzha, the most significant area held by Ukraine since the start of the first assault five months ago.

Ukraine's fresh offensive in Kursk comes nearly six months after Kyiv first sent troops into the western Russian region.

Ukraine's president told podcaster Lex Fridman that 3,800 North Koreans had been killed or wounded fighting alongside Russia but many more could come.

North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine have been accused of using a 'meat grinder strategy' in combat, with soldiers refusing to surrender in the face of heavy shelling

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