Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Moscow had started involving “a noticeable number” of North Korean troops in its efforts to drive Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s Kursk region.
Ukrainian troops began their incursion into the Kursk region in August and still control some settlements there, part of Kyiv’s attempt to relieve pressure on its forces in eastern Ukraine where Russia has been making steady advances. Mr Zelenskiy said the North Korean troops’ participation in the operations in the Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, amounted to a new escalation in the nearly 34-month war.
Ukrainian air defences destroyed 56 out of 108 drones launched by Russia during a night strike on Saturday, Kyiv’s military said on Sunday. It added that another 49 were “locationally lost”, typically a result of electronic jamming. Debris from the destroyed drones damaged an unspecified piece of infrastructure as well as apartment buildings and homes, the air force said.
Ukraine’s military leadership has replaced the commander overseeing defences in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian forces are making swift advances, a military official said on Saturday.
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General Oleksandr Tarnavskiy (54) was appointed to head the operational and tactical group Donetsk, replacing General Oleksandr Lutsenko, the official at the general staff told Reuters.
General Lutsenko was criticised by Ukrainian military bloggers and some lawmakers for failing to stop Russian troops’ relentless push toward the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.
The battles around Pokrovsk, a key logistic hub for Ukrainian military and civilians in the eastern Donetsk region, come at a critical juncture of the war. Ukraine is on the back foot on the battlefield as Russian troops advance at their fastest pace since the early days of Moscow’s invasion in February 2022.
Last month Mr Zelenskiy replaced several other generals, saying changes were needed.
Kyiv is also trying to build ties with US president-elect Donald Trump, whose promise to end the war swiftly has raised concerns in Ukraine that it could be largely on Moscow’s terms.
Ukraine’s Khortytsiya military command said on Saturday that Russian troops had destroyed several Ukrainian positions in villages around Pokrovsk, improving their tactical positions after “exhausting battles” and forcing Kyiv forces to retreat.
Ukrainian officials said about 11,000 people still remain in Pokrovsk, which has been under constant shelling for months, and where all critical infrastructure – electricity, water, and gas supplies – were destroyed.
Pokrovsk lies at the intersection of several important roads and rail lines and is some 20km away from the administrative border of the Donetsk region. Moscow has been trying to reach that line since the start of the invasion as its forces aim to seize all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Military analysts said that for Kyiv losing Pokrovsk would also potentially mean having the war closer to central Ukraine and its better-protected rear.
Elsewhere in the region at least one person has died after a Russian tanker ran aground in a Black Sea storm, while another ship also sustained damage, authorities said.
A dozen crew members were evacuated from the Volgoneft 212 in the Kerch Strait, which separates mainland Russia from occupied Crimea, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. The second vessel, the Volgoneft 239, has a crew of 14, the ministry said on Telegram on Sunday. They remain on board, state television reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered deputy prime minister Vitaly Savelyev to head a working group to organise rescue work and deal with a fuel spill, the Kremlin said on Telegram. Prosecutors said they have opened cases into the incident.
Specialists are assessing a slick that has formed in the area, while helicopters and tugs boats have been dispatched to the scene, according to state television. It showed footage of the detached bow of a ship sinking into the sea.
– Reuters, Bloomberg
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