LIVE – War in Ukraine: Moscow claims to have conquered the strategic mining town of Kurakhové

Ukrainian forces say they have resumed offensive operations in at least three areas of Kursk Oblast and made tactical advances, as this ISW infographic shows.

Moscow says it has conquered the mining town of Kurakhové in eastern Ukraine, a major advance in the region. Russian units “completely liberated the town of Kurakhové, the largest population center in the southwest of Donbass,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram on Monday.

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. This city is near a water reservoir and is home to a coal-fired power plant that was damaged by the fighting. It is also about thirty kilometers south of Pokrovsk, an essential logistics node for the Ukrainian military threatened by Russian soldiers.

The position of the Ukrainian army in the Russian region of Kursk, where it is leading an offensive, will be “important” in the context of possible peace negotiations between kyiv and Moscow, said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

“Their position in Kursk is important, because it is certainly an element to take into account in any negotiations that may take place in the coming year,” he told a conference press conference in Seoul, the first stop on a farewell tour which will take him to Japan and France.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia was seeking to expand space cooperation with North Korea in exchange for sending troops to help Moscow fight Ukraine.

“The DPRK already benefits from Russian military equipment and training. Today, we have reason to believe that Moscow intends to share advanced technologies in the field of space and satellites with Pyongyang,” declared the head of American diplomacy during a press conference in Seoul, using the official acronym of North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was very complimentary of the future American president, while kyiv is leading a major offensive in the Russian region of Kursk. “I see now that when I talk about something with Donald Trump – whether in person or on the phone – all the European leaders ask me ‘how did it go?’” he said in this interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman, broadcast yesterday but recorded at the end of December.

“This shows the influence of Donald Trump, and this has never happened before with an American president, in my own experience,” Zelensky said, before adding: “It gives you confidence that he can end this war.” He said he wanted to meet the future American president to agree on a peace plan before any negotiations with Vladimir Putin: “First with Trump, we agree with him on how to end the war, how to stop Putin.”

Moscow claimed yesterday to repel a new Ukrainian offensive in the Russian border region of Kursk, where kyiv’s forces already control several hundred square kilometers since an assault in August 2024, a surprise operation two weeks before Donald Trump’s return home White.

This new offensive by kyiv comes five months after the first in the same region of Kursk, which took the Russian forces by surprise, a failure for President Vladimir Putin who has praised a “more sovereign” Russia since the launch of the assault launched in February 2022.

Hello and welcome to this live broadcast dedicated to the war in Ukraine. Find the latest information on the conflict here.