Russia has been battling Ukraine in Kursk since August 2024, when Kyiv launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Russian soil. Ukraine still controls roughly half of the territory it seized in the late summer, although Moscow has been battling to peel back Kyiv's grip across the border.

Ukraine's air force says one of its F-16 fighter jet pilots shot down six missiles during a Russian aerial attack last month. Meanwhile, Moscow says its troops have inflicted a series of defeats on Ukrainian units in Kursk.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some 38,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia's western Kursk region since August.

Russia’s Defense Ministry is claiming that its troops in eastern Ukraine have captured the town of Kurakhove after a months-long battle.

The Kremlin responded to an attempted missile strike on the border territory of Belgorod, which Russia blamed as much on the U.S. for authorizing ATACMS use.

The surprise attack seeks to reverse Ukraine’s decreasing hold of the region. Since Kyiv’s forces gained partial control of Kursk following a daring cross-border assault last August, Russian troops, aided by North Korean soldiers, have halved the territory held by Ukraine, albeit while suffering thousands of casualties.

Small Russian units are attempting to advance around Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, but the town itself is not threatened at the moment, a Ukrainian military spokesperson said on Jan. 6.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US-based think tank that maps the frontline, said Ukraine had made advances into the southern outskirts of Berdin. It is to the northeast of the city of Sudzha, the most significant area held by Ukraine since the start of the first assault five months ago.

Russian forces in Ukraine are advancing at their fastest pace since the early days of the invasion thanks to the biggest advantage Moscow has: manpower.

Russia said on Monday its forces had made important gains in eastern Ukraine while continuing to fend off a new Ukrainian offensive inside the Kursk region of western Russia, where a second day of fierce fighting was under way.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will drive a hard bargain with President-elect Donald Trump on Ukraine, because he is confident that Russian military can outlast Ukraine’s and that Team Trump does not have leverage.