Every day, Midi Libre takes stock of the situation in Ukraine. This Tuesday, January 7, 2025, discover the latest news around this conflict.
The Ukrainian army says it is carrying out “new offensive operations” in the Russian region of Kursk
Ukraine said on Tuesday that its armed forces have started “new offensive actions” in the Kursk region in western Russia, his first major comment since Moscow reported a new Ukrainian advance on Sunday.
Ukrainian forces seized part of the Kursk region in a surprise incursion in August and managed to maintain control of some territories for five months despite Russian counter-offensives. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that kyiv had started a new counterattack.
The Ukrainian General Staff, which has released little information about the operation in order to ensure its security, announced Tuesday that its army attacked a Russian command center near Belaya, a village in the south -west of Kursk oblast. This strike, like other recent operations in the region, is part of a series of “new offensive operations” against Russian forces, added the high command.
The Russian Defense Ministry, which called the Ukrainian counterattack a “sloppy”said in a statement that its troops had struck Ukrainian units in the Kursk region. He compiled a list of six locations where Russian forces allegedly defeated Ukrainian brigades as well as seven others, including across the border, where strikes were carried out against Ukrainian units and equipment. Reuters was unable to verify the claims made by both parties.
According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), geotagged videos in the region show Ukrainian pushes northwest of the town of Sudja, while Russian military bloggers have reported of fighting northwest of the city.
The escalation of fighting in Kursk comes at a critical time for Ukraine, whose overworked troops are struggling to slow down the Russian advance in the east of its territory. Maintaining part of Russian territory could serve as a bargaining chip during potential negotiations less than two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to end the war quickly without specifying how.
According to estimates by Ukraine and its allies, Russian forces are reinforced in the Kursk region by 11,000 North Korean troops. Russia has so far neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
President Zelensky’s popularity down sharply in 2024
The Ukrainians still mostly support President Volodymyr Zelensky in his action, after almost three years of Russian invasion, a figure however in sharp decline in 2024, according to the results of a poll published Tuesday by a specialized institute in kyiv.
The kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) conducted a telephone survey of 2,000 people living in territory under Ukrainian control between December 2 and 17, approximately a month after Donald Trump’s victory in the American presidential election which has reignited speculation about possible peace talks with Moscow.
According to the results, at the end of 2024, 52% of Ukrainians surveyed said they “had confidence” in Volodymyr Zelensky, a figure down sharply compared to the end of 2023 (77%), reflecting a running out of support for the Ukrainian president, after almost of three years of high-intensity war.
Current support for the Ukrainian head of state, in office since 2019, is more marked in the West (60%) and the Center (52%), regions relatively untouched by the war, than in the East ( only 42%) and in the South (46%), where most of the fighting takes place.
Now, according to this survey, nearly 4 in 10 Ukrainians (39%) say they “do not have confidence” in Volodymyr Zelensky, almost double compared to December 2023 (22%).
In recent weeks, the debate on possible peace negotiations with Moscow has intensified, against a backdrop of rapid Russian advances in the Donbass (east) and in the context of Donald Trump’s return home on January 20. White.
The American president-elect assured that he wanted to quickly end the “carnage” in Ukraine, making kyiv fear that it would have to make territorial concessions to Russia to obtain peace.
Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, calls for “security guarantees” to its Western allies, led by the Americans, before any negotiations with Moscow.
The Ukrainian president was elected in April 2019, promising in particular to fight for peace with Russia. His popularity then declined, before skyrocketing to close to 90% favorable opinions after the large-scale Russian invasion in 2022.
