KYIV – Ukraine said on Monday its hard-pressed army was battling 50,000 troops in Russia’s Kursk region in the north as it struggled to consolidate two besieged fronts in the east and prepared to face an infantry assault in the south. .

Escalating fighting along a frontline of more than 1,000 kilometers stretches Ukraine’s already outnumbered troops at a critical time after Donald Trump won the US election, raising the prospect of possible talks with Russia.

Russia occupies a fifth of Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin has said he wants Kiev to abandon ambitions to join the NATO military alliance and withdraw from four Ukrainian regions it partially holds, which Kiev says is tantamount to surrender .

The head of Ukraine’s armed forces, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, said he had traveled to the front in Russia’s Kursk region, where a surprise Ukrainian incursion cut off a chunk of land in August that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said could be used as a bargaining chip .

“(Russian forces) are trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into the territory we control,” he said on Telegram.

Some US military analysts have questioned the rationale for the Kursk operation, which extended an already long front line, creating more tension for Kiev.

Ukraine says Russia has deployed 11,000 North Korean troops to the Kursk region and that they have already been involved in clashes, urging the West to respond firmly.

Moscow neither denies nor confirms their presence.

Syrskyi said the Kursk operation had attracted Russian fighters and eased pressure on several key outposts in the east, where Russia has made gains at its fastest level since 2022.

“These tens of thousands of enemies from the best Russian shock units would have stormed our positions in the directions of Pokrovsk, Kurakhove or Toretsk, which would have significantly worsened the situation on the front,” he said.

RUSSIAN PRESSURE

The governor of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said a dam at the Kurakhove reservoir was damaged, posing a threat to villagers living near the Vovcha River. He blamed the Russian bombing.

Zelensky said Ukraine would strengthen its positions on the Pokrovsk and Kurakhove fronts, where Moscow has directed its offensive pressure for months.

Russia has approached Pokrovsk, a strategic road and rail hub that has a coal mine. The small industrial town of Kurakhove is home to a major coal-fired thermal power plant.

A Ukrainian military spokesman told Reuters that Russia was also moving trained assault groups to advance positions in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and were preparing to attack.

The southern front has seen much less fighting since 2023, when Ukraine launched a major counter-offensive that failed to break through heavily defended and mined terrain held by Russia.

“(The assaults) could start in the near future, we are not even talking about weeks, we expect it to happen any day,” said Vladyslav Voloshin, spokesman for the southern military sector.

While it was unclear whether they would involve a single offensive push or separate attacks, intelligence assessed that Moscow’s troops planned to use armored vehicles and a considerable number of drones, he said.

“They are training both armored groups and light vehicles – buggies, motorcycles – to conduct these assault operations,” he added.

Russia has already conducted preliminary reconnaissance and stepped up airstrikes in the south by about 30-40 percent in the past two to three weeks, using bombers and unguided air missiles, he added.

Russia has claimed the capture of village after village as it advances into eastern Ukraine and has vowed to expel Ukrainian forces from its Kursk region. Reuters could not independently verify reports from the front. Reuters