Residents of kyiv kneel on the ground in memory of fallen Ukrainian soldiers, January 3, 2025 (AFP / Tetiana DZHAFAROVA)
Russia claimed Monday the capture of the mining town of Kurakhové, in eastern Ukraine, after a battle of nearly three months, estimating that its conquest will allow it to fully seize the Donetsk region “at an accelerated pace.
This announcement comes at a time when Ukrainian forces, who have been retreating for months on the eastern front, have, according to Moscow, launched a new offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk, of which they have controlled several hundred square kilometers since August 2024.
On site, “we are constantly inflicting losses” on the Russians, the commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Mikhaïlo Drapaty, told several media, including AFP, without giving more details on the current operation.
Each camp seems to want to strengthen its positions, while conjectures have been rife for weeks about the conditions of future peace negotiations, due to the return to the White House on January 20 of Donald Trump.
Map of the military situation in the vicinity of the city of Donetsk showing the areas where Russian forces advanced in the direction of Pokrovsk between October 2, 2024 and January 5, 2025, claiming the capture of Kurakhové (AFP / Sabrina BLANCHARD)
On the eastern front, after months of slow but steady progress, Russian troops “have completely liberated the town of Kurakhové, the largest population center in the south-west of Donbass”, the Russian Defense Ministry announced Monday morning.
Kurakhové, which had around 22,000 inhabitants before the conflict, was a leading defensive position for the Ukrainian military in this sector and is located near a large deposit of lithium, a rare mineral.
– “Victory” for Moscow –
The Minister of Defense, Andreï Beloussov, welcomed this “victory” in a press release.
The loss of this city has not yet been confirmed by the Ukrainian army, which on Monday limited itself to reporting “assaults in the urban area of Kurakhové”.
“This is not my domain,” said the commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Mikhaïlo Drapaty, when asked about the Russian assertions.
Map showing areas where the Ukrainian army advanced in Russia's Kursk region between January 4 and 5, according to ISW data (AFP/Maud ZABA)
The combat map established by the military blog DeepState, close to the Ukrainian army, however, shows the entire city under Russian control.
-The Russian Defense Ministry judges that this conquest will make it possible to seize the rest of the eastern region of Donetsk “at an accelerated pace”. He also claimed Monday the capture of the hamlet of Datchenské, just south of Pokrovsk.
– “Realistic discussions” –
In the Kursk region, the Russian army announced on Sunday that it was facing “a counterattack” from kyiv troops.
A damaged statue of Lenin in the Ukrainian-controlled Russian town of Sudzha in the Kursk region during a visit led by the Ukrainian military, August 16, 2024 (AFP/Yan DOBRONOSOV)
The Ukrainians have occupied a few hundred square kilometers there since August, despite attempts to dislodge them from Russian troops, supported in this sector by North Korean soldiers, according to kyiv and the West.
The Russian army claims that this Ukrainian “breakthrough attempt” targeted the village of Bolshoye Soldatskoye and was “foiled”.
Apart from Mikhaïlo Drapaty's brief speech, the Ukrainian army has remained largely silent at this stage on the current operation and its objective.
President Volodymyr Zelensky reminded him in his daily address of “the importance” of fixing the Russian army in the Kursk region to prevent it from deploying all of its troops on the eastern and southern fronts.
“We maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory, actively destroying Russian military potential,” he stressed.
On the diplomatic level, kyiv hopes in the coming weeks for strong decisions from its Western allies, first and foremost Donald Trump, to obtain “security guarantees” against Vladimir Putin's Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, called on kyiv on Monday to “conduct realistic discussions on territorial issues” to obtain peace with the Kremlin, which demands that kyiv cede four regions partially in the hands of the Russians, in addition to the Crimea annexed in 2014, and renounces entering NATO. Unacceptable conditions for Volodymyr Zelensky.
The commander of the Ukrainian land forces, Mikhaïlo Drapaty, also recognized on Monday “problems” within the “Anne of kyiv” brigade, partly trained and equipped by France, after press revelations on cases of abuse of power and numerous desertions.
“As far as possible, all these problems are being resolved,” he said, assuring that the number of desertions of soldiers trained in France was “minimal”.
