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Ukraine has launched a new assault inside Russia’s Kursk oblast, expanding its incursion into Russian territory by as much as three miles.
Kyiv’s new incursion came on the six-month anniversary of its first attack inside Kursk, with one Russian military blogger describing the surprise attack as coming “like a bolt from the blue”.
The incursion was also reported by the Russian ministry of defence, which said Ukrainian troops and armoured vehicles had launched several waves of attacks near the villages of Ulanok and Cherkasskaya Konopelka.
Kyiv’s forces launched a “new series of battalion-sized mechanised assaults in Kursk Oblast and advanced up to five kilometres behind Russian lines southeast of Sudzha, Kursk Oblast,” the Institute for the Study of War said.
Without directly referring to the new attack, Volodymyr Zelensky said in his overnight address that the incursion “brought the war home for Russians so that they might feel just what war is. And they are feeling it.”
Meanwhile, the first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets arrived in Ukraine, French armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu announced yesterday.
The fourth-generation jets have been modified to focus on air-to-ground combat, reportedly so they can fire French and British long-range missiles at Russian targets.
Europe and Canada increased defence spending by 20% in 2024, NATO says
Defence spending by Nato’s European members and Canada rose by 20 per cent in 2024, compared to the previous year, Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said on Friday.
Nato members are facing renewed pressure from US president Donald Trump to ramp up their defence spending, which he frequently demanded during his first term in office.
Many members have been anxious to show that they have taken his message on board and have already increased military spending, particularly since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
NATO said the 20 per cent boost by the alliance’s non-US members took their total defence spending to more than $485 billion (£390bn).
“I’m looking forward to hosting defence ministers at Nato next week where we’ll talk about investing more and better in defence,” Rutte said in response to a Reuters request to Nato for the latest spending figures.
“We’ve crunched the numbers. They’re going up. In fact, spending by Europe and Canada is up 20 per cent in 2024, bringing the total additional investment in recent years from $640 to $700 billion.”
Nato said it could not make further figures available for the moment. But it is expected to release more at next Wednesday’s meeting of alliance defence ministers, which will include a debut for Trump’s Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.
North Korean troops have withdraw, South Korean intelligence reports
North Korean troops appear to have withdrawn from fighting in the Russian border region of Kursk, South Korean intelligence has reported, corroborating earlier reports from Ukrainian sources.
Intelligence officials said the troops seem to have been pulled from the frontline around the middle of January after suffering heavy losses, estimated to be about 300 dead and 2,700 wounded.
Ukraine says it believes ICC work will continue after Trump sanctions
Ukraine believes that the work of the International Criminal Court in relation to Russian war crimes will continue after US president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the organisation, Kyiv’s foreign ministry said on Friday.
Trump authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of US citizens or US allies such as Israel.
The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
“We are convinced that the ICC will continue to fulfil important functions in Ukraine’s case, in particular bringing Russian war criminals to responsibility,” foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said at a press briefing in Ukraine’s capital.
“We know that relations between the US and ICC have a long history,” said Tykhyi.
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Kremlin says ‘we need to be patient’ on Trump and possible Ukraine talks
The Kremlin said on Friday there had been a lot of inaccurate reports on US plans for ending the Ukraine war and called for patience as speculation swirled around the timing of a possible meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
At a briefing with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked about a report that Trump’s envoy for Russia and Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, was seeking to arrange a truce even before talks on a peace settlement.
“We have nothing to add yet. There are a lot of statements and reports on this topic that are refuted, changed, recognised as hoaxes or something else the next day,” Peskov said.
“There is nothing substantive on this account yet; we just need to be patient.”
Trump and Putin have both said they are keen to meet in person. The agenda, if such a meeting takes place, is expected to focus on Trump’s stated aim to bring a swift end to the three-year-old conflict.
“Russia is open to negotiations. In any case, a settlement should come as a result of negotiations,” Peskov said.
CNN earlier quoted Peskov as saying there had been no initial contact between the two leaders about whether such a meeting was needed or where and how it might take place.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament’s international affairs committee, was cited by the state RIA news agency on Thursday as saying that preparations for such a meeting were at “an advanced stage” and that it could take place in February or March.
Peskov said on Wednesday that contacts with Trump’s team at the level of “individual departments” were intensifying, but declined to provide further details.
Russian forces capture another settlement in eastern Ukraine, Tass reports
Russian troops took control of the village of Druzhba in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the Tass state news agency reported on Friday, citing the Defence Ministry.
The town is to the north of Toretsk, which has been the site of heavy fighting and street battles in recent months.
DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker with close ties to the military, records Druzhba as at least partially occupied by Russian forces.
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UPD: Russian strike in Ukraine’s northeast Sumy kills three
Three people were killed in a Russian guided bomb attack on Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, Ukrainian authorities said on Friday.
Earlier, we reported the death toll was at two people.
The attack late on Thursday with three guided aerial bombs destroyed a residential building in the village of Myropillya, the Prosecutor General’s office said in a statement.
The village sits near the border with Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops are locked in fierce fighting with Russian forces after launching an incursion there last year.
Source: independent.co.uk
