Russian bombings killed at least one person and injured another in the Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
In a statement, he stressed that Ukrainian forces attacked in the morning near the village of Berdin, with two tanks, a mine clearance vehicle and 12 armored combat vehicles with paratroopers. Two Ukrainian attacks were repelled.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said there was “good news” from Kursk and that Russia was “getting what it deserved”, while Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s official Center for Counterterrorism disinformation, claimed on Telegram that Russian troops had been attacked in several locations.
The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify this information.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will again call on his allies to strengthen his country’s air defense at a meeting this week in Germany, as US President-elect Donald Trump takes office later this month – this after promising to quickly end the war which has lasted for almost three years.
Mr. Zelensky noted that dozens of partner countries will attend the meeting at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on Thursday, “including those who can help strengthen our capabilities not only to defend ourselves against missiles, but also against guided bombs and Russian aviation.
“We will discuss it with them and continue to persuade them,” assured the Ukrainian leader in his speech on Saturday evening. “The task remains unchanged: to strengthen our air defense.”
US Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin will attend the meeting, which was originally scheduled to take place in October and was expected to be attended by US President Joe Biden. It was postponed due to the response to Hurricane Milton which hit the United States.
In its final weeks in office, the Biden administration has pushed to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Mr. Trump claimed during his election campaign that he could end the war in a day. His comments cast doubt on whether the United States will continue to be Ukraine’s biggest — and most important — military supporter.
Last week, Volodymyr Zelensky said the president-elect was “strong and unpredictable,” and that those qualities could be a deciding factor in his political approach to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine and last year took advantage of weaknesses in Ukraine’s defenses to advance slowly into eastern regions, despite heavy losses of troops and equipment. The trajectory of the war is not in favor of Ukraine. The country lacks personnel on the front line and needs continued support from its Western partners.
Mr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian and North Korean troops had suffered heavy losses during fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.
“During yesterday’s and today’s battles near a single village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantrymen and Russian paratroopers,” said the president. “It’s significant.”
Last month, the head of state said that 3,000 North Korean troops had been killed and wounded in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in August, dealing a blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy part of its troops after a slow offensive in eastern Ukraine.
The incursion did not significantly change the dynamics of the war, and military analysts say Ukraine lost about 40 percent of the territory it initially conquered.
A death in Nikopol
Separately, local officials said one person was killed and another injured during Russian shelling of the town of Nikopol in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region on Sunday.
Downstream of the Dnipro, at least six people were injured when Russian troops also fired shells at the city of Kherson, capital of the region of the same name. Settlements such as these on the west bank of the river are regularly bombarded from Russian-controlled territory on the opposite bank.
Nine people were injured in a Russian guided bomb attack on the border town of Semenivka in northern Ukraine. Local authorities announced Saturday evening that Moscow had sent 103 drones to Ukraine overnight from Saturday to Sunday, Ukrainian officials said. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, 61 drones were destroyed and 42 were lost, likely due to electronic jamming.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced that 61 Ukrainian drones were shot down in the same night in five regions of western Russia. No casualties were reported, but Rostov region governor Yuri Slyusar said residential buildings and cars were damaged by drone debris.
