Ukraine updates: Kyiv launches fresh Kursk offensive

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is hoping for a "strong" President Donald Trump as the 78-year-old nears his return to the White House.

In a three-hour interview with US podcaster Lex Fridman, Zelenskyy recognized that continuing support from Washington in the wake of the departure of Joe Biden would be vital if Ukraine is to fend off Russia's invasion, and maybe even go a step further.

"Trump and I will come to an agreement and... offer strong security guarantees, together with Europe, and then we can talk to the Russians," Zelenskyy told Fridman, according to the published translation of the interview held in Kyiv over the New Year.

"Without the United States, security guarantees are not possible. I mean these security guarantees that can prevent Russian aggression," he said, tacitly acknowledging that Ukraine's European allies would be too weak militarily to offer significant assistance.

In recent months, Ukraine has been ceding territory to Russian forces as its largely outnumbered troops continue to lose villages in the eastern Donbas region.

Zelenskyy also expressed concern over the United States' precarious relationship with NATO during Trump's first term, and that if Washington was to quit the alliance, it would be a major win for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I'm simply saying that if it does [quit the alliance], Putin will destroy Europe," he said.

The UN's atomic watchdog said on Sunday it was aware of reports of loud blasts near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia plant — the largest nuclear power plant in Europe which is also at the frontline of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

"International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) staff reported hearing loud blasts near Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) today, coinciding with reports of a drone attack on the plant's training center, marking yet another threat to nuclear safety at Europe's largest NPP," the agency said in a statement.

"Reports state that there were no casualties and no impact on any NPP equipment."

Ukraine's General Staff has reported a dozen individual armed clashes still ongoing in Kursk on Sunday after Kyiv launched a surprise offensive in the western Russian region.

The General Staff in Kyiv said in its evening situation report that it had recorded 42 individual armed clashes, including 12 that remain ongoing.

"The Russians in the Kursk region are very worried because they were attacked from several directions," the report said.

Russian media has only reported on repelling drone attacks near Kursk. The Russian Defense Ministry had nevertheless acknowledged the offensive earlier in the day, describing it as a "counterattack."

Neither Moscow nor Kyiv have reported losses or changes to the front line.

This is Ukraine's second offensive in the Kursk region, following a previous one last August, which started strong but has recently seen Moscow reclaim almost half of the occupied territory, with the help of soldiers from North Korea.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Social Democratic Party have condemned on Sunday a statement by a member of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) claiming the chancellor had a meeting planned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"This is a false claim," said Scholz in Berlin. "It is profoundly indecent, there is no basis for it." 

"I believe honest people are allowed to be outraged when false claims are being used."

Roderich Kiesewetter, a CDU foreign affairs and security expert, had posted the day before on X, formerly Twitter, saying the alleged meeting was scheduled to take place before German elections set for February 23.

Scholz and his party both condemned the post and Kiesewetter. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit denied plans for such a trip.

"It would make no sense at all," the government spokesman told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) media group, calling the comment "slander."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will again request allies to boost their contributions to Ukraine's air defenses at an upcoming meeting in Germany.

Zelenskyy said countries participating in a meeting of the so-called Ramstein group at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Thursday will include "those who can help boost our capabilities not only to defend against missiles but also against guided bombs and Russian aviation."

The meeting comes just weeks ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump taking over in the White House. While campaigning, Trump said he would end nearly three years of war in Ukraine quickly, but he never discussed how.

In his last few weeks in office, US President Joe Biden has worked to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump is sworn in on January 20. The US is, by far, Ukraine's largest military backer. 

Russia has captured nearly 3,600 square kilometers (1,390 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in the past year, according to media reports from Kyiv — an area roughly the size of the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, or Long Island in New York.

Ukraine suffered its worst territorial losses in November, losing 610 square kilometers, as the Russians captured approximately 20 square kilometers on a daily basis, the military blog Militarnyi reported. 

It cited map data from DeepStateMAP, another military blog. 

The territorial losses in 2024 were reportedly multiple times that of 2023, although there was no official confirmation of the figures. 

Moscow appears to have confirmed that Ukraine has launched a "counterattack" in Russia's western border region of Kursk.

The region is the one where Kyiv's forces began a shock ground offensive last August.

Pro-Kremlin military bloggers had reported earlier that a powerful new offensive was underway.

"At about 9 a.m. Moscow time (0600 GMT/UTC), in order to halt the advance of Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counterattack," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

The ministry added that Ukraine had used two tanks, a dozen armored vehicles, and a demolition unit in the new offensive. 

It said the troops were headed towards the village of Berdin.

"The operation to destroy the Ukrainian army formations continues," the ministry said.

Kyiv says Ukrainian forces have started a new offensive in the western Russian region of Kursk after their surprise incursion into the territory in August.

"Kursk region, good news: Russia is getting what it deserves," the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, wrote on Telegram. 

His comments appeared to confirm reports by military bloggers that the new advance in Kursk was taking place.

The Russians had been taken by surprise in the Kursk area, with attacks by Ukrainian forces ongoing in several directions, said Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Centre for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council, which reports to the Ukrainian president.

While the military itself did not initially provide any information about the attacks, the main target appears to be the road to Kursk, northeast of the small Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha.

Videos said to be from the region show several columns of Ukrainian armored vehicles moving at high speed, with mine-clearing vehicles at the forefront.

Reports from influential war bloggers indicated that a new Ukrainian assault in Russia's Kursk area has Moscow's forces on the defensive.

The Russian bloggers support the war in Ukraine but have often reported critically on shortcomings.

"Despite strong pressure from the enemy, our units are heroically holding the line," the Operativnye Svodki [Operational Reports] channel said.

The channel said artillery and small-arms battles were taking place, with Ukraine using Western-armoured vehicles to bring in large numbers of infantry.

The bloggers said fighting was concentrated just north of a highway from the border town of Sudzha to Kursk, the capital of the Russian region. 

One influential blogger, Yuri Podolyak, said the assault was most likely a Ukrainian distraction manoeuver, possibly to set up a strike on Glushkovo, further west. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reported heavy losses of Russian units seeking to recapture the Kursk region.

"In fighting today and yesterday around the settlement of Makhnivka in the Kursk region, the Russian army has lost an infantry battalion of North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers," Zelensky said in his nightly video message to the nation. 

The reports were not independently verifiable. A battalion of Russian forces officially has up to 500 men.

Recently, videos have repeatedly surfaced showing attempts by Russian units, sometimes reinforced by North Korean soldiers, to storm the Kursk region.

rc/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)