Ukrainian forces launched a new surprise attack Within RussiaThey have expanded their prominence in Kursk towards the north and east, with the passage of five months since the counter-invasion launched by Kiev this week.

Geolocated footage showed Ukrainian forces moving from their base in Sudza towards Berdin, seizing fields and entering the settlement on Sunday.

By Monday, Ukrainian forces had also captured the settlements of Ruskoye Poreshnoye and Novosotnitsky. All three settlements are located on the main road between Sudja and the regional capital Kursk.

Russian military bloggers said Ukrainian forces also took control of the settlements of Martynovka, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Mikhailovka.

Russian bloggers said Ukrainian forces advanced in three waves using company-sized attacks backed by armored vehicles.

One of the reasons for their success appears to be the effective use of electronic warfare.

“Our drones can’t do anything about it yet, as the enemy’s electronic warfare has literally dropped them to the ground,” one reporter wrote.

Ukrainian forces also appear to have used High Mobility Military Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to prevent Russian reinforcements.

“As happened in August, the enemy is covering its offensive actions with HIMARS strikes,” a Russian correspondent wrote. “He is trying to eliminate our suitable reserves, artillery operators and drones.”

Explosions were reported at an aviation technical base in Kursk itself, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled areas. The military operations headquarters in Kursk claimed to have shot down more than one Ukrainian missile, suggesting others had been infiltrated.

“Reports that Ukrainian forces are using long-range fires to intercept Russian rear areas and electronic warfare to destroy Russian drones in support of Ukrainian mechanized advances suggest that Ukrainian forces operating in Kursk are using more effective combined arms tactics,” the study institute wrote. War, a Washington-based think tank.

In addition to missiles, Ukraine has used long-range drones of its own manufacture to attack Russian energy assets. A Ukrainian drone struck a gas condensate transport terminal in the port of Ust Luga, near Leningrad, on Saturday, causing a massive fire.

Ukrainian officials have listed a number of reasons for the counter-invasion, the most important of which is the occupation of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers who would have attacked Ukrainian territory.

The Russians have deployed their powerful units in the Kursk region. North Korean soldiers are participating there. “The important thing is that the occupier cannot currently redirect all this power to other directions, in particular the regions of Donetsk, Sumy, Kharkiv or Zaporizhia.”

He added: “Since the beginning of the Kursk operation, the enemy has already lost more than 38,000 soldiers in this region alone, including nearly 15,000 irreparable losses.”

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine published a list of Russian equipment destroyed in Kursk, including 104 tanks, 575 armored fighting vehicles, more than 1,000 other vehicles and 330 artillery systems.

Ukraine also said it captured 860 Russians in Kursk and used them to swap its prisoners of war.

Have the Russians run out of tanks?

Russia has managed to do this Replacement of soldiersBut its ability to replace equipment is less certain.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense estimated that its forces destroyed 3,689 Russian tanks, 8,956 armored combat vehicles, and more than 13,000 artillery pieces during 2024. The Ukrainian Navy said it sank five ships and 458 small vessels.

Russia is withdrawing Soviet armor from its stores and refurbishing it for combat. It is unclear how long it can continue to do this.

Single screen for Russian devices estimated Russia had about 48% of its tanks remaining, and a similar proportion of its armored fighting vehicles, but satellite images suggested that a large proportion of them were in such poor condition that they were unusable.

The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated a year ago that Russia had enough armor to last two to three years.

The continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian sites over the past week also raised questions about Russian armor.

Russian forces focused most of their manpower and fire on the settlements of Pokrovsk and Mirnohrad in Donetsk, and on Friday attacked 26 times along a front 45 kilometers (30 miles) to the south.

“Fierce battles are continuing along the entire front line, with the hottest point being near Pokrovsk,” Zelensky said in his speech on Saturday evening.

On Tuesday, this area witnessed 41 combat clashes, out of 176 on the entire front.

At the closest point, Russian forces took control of positions just 1.5 kilometers from Pokrovsk, where 7,300 civilians were reported to still live and work.

He added: “The intensity of the fighting has changed and become greater. “Now, opposite us, there is a separate motorized rifle brigade and a motorized rifle regiment of the Russian Federation,” Serhiy Okishev, a sergeant with the 25th separate airborne brigade fighting in the Pokrovsk region, said in a conference call.

However, he noted that Russian forces are using fewer armored vehicles and more wagons, golf carts and civilian vehicles. It was not clear whether this was due to the scarcity of armor in the Russian arsenal or due to maneuverability.

Likewise, a spokesman for Ukrainian forces in Kurakhov said on Friday that “the Russians have switched to launching exclusively infantry attacks in the last few weeks, and if armored vehicles are used, they will only be involved for fire support and in the attacks themselves.”

“The Russians keep their armored vehicles as much as possible because they are very afraid of our anti-tank missile systems,” he said.

Ukraine is investing in long-range unmanned systems

Ukraine has invested heavily in its defense industry over the past year, especially in unmanned systems of various types, as it works to develop innovative tactics.

Ukrainian military intelligence on Monday told Ukrainian news outlet TSN that its Magura V maritime drone shot down not one but two Russian Mi8 helicopters over the Black Sea on December 31.

The attack occurred near Cape Tarkhankut, 15 kilometers (10 miles) from Sevastopol.

The 13th unit of military intelligence, responsible for operating the Magura surface drone, set a trap for Russian aviation, which is engaged in detecting sea drones and destroying them on sight. “In this particular operation, we did not have the mission of hiding from aviation as usual. “We went specifically to chase air targets,” an unnamed source said.

Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Sirsky said that the Armed Forces are “increasing the number of brigades with a reinforced unmanned element” and creating a separate brigade for unmanned systems.

Overall, in December, Ukrainian Defense Forces operators struck more than 54 thousand enemy targets. Nearly half of that score — 49 percent — was provided by suicide drones, he wrote on social media.

Ukraine plans to build about 3,000 cruise missiles and drones this year, and at least 30,000 long-range drones, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyal announced on Friday.

“As part of the Victory Weapons project, we will launch long-term contracts with manufacturers for a period of 3 to 5 years. We will pay special attention to the long-range components and the missile program,” Shamyal said.

The drone and missile programs were part of a plan to increase Ukraine’s defense industrial capacity to about $30 billion, from $7 billion in 2024.

US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to end the war this year, raising the possibility that the conflict will freeze along current battle lines.

Asked if he was ready to host a multinational European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, Zelensky praised France for raising this possibility but made clear that this should be part of an agreement to bring Ukraine into NATO.

“It should definitely be on the path to NATO. This does not mean that the deployment of European forces rules out a future in NATO,” Zelensky said. “I saw that Trump was positive about this idea.”