By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2024-11-12 20:00:06 | Updated at 2024-11-14 03:18:37
1 day ago
Russia suffered its deadliest day in the war Monday — losing 1,950 soldiers in a failed attempt to retake Kursk from Ukrainian troops, Kyiv officials said.
The Russian forces saw their assault whipped out by Kyiv troops who continue to hold onto most of the land taken during their surprise counter-invasion in August, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“Yesterday was truly a black day for the Russian occupiers who tried to storm in five to six waves,” said Anastasia Blyshchyk, a spokesman for the 7th Separate Mechanized Brigade.
“The Russians tried to attack with vehicles, with paratroopers, and storm Ukrainian settlements. However, ten units of armored vehicles were destroyed by the warriors of the 47th Brigade,” he added, according to the Kyiv Post.
The unsuccessful daylight charge saw the armored vehicles loaded with infantry fighters blown up in “less than an hour of combat” as they came under enemy fire and hit minefields scattered on the ground, Kyiv said.
While Russia has made small advances in trying to retake Kursk, mainly by sending wave-after-wave of troops to try and overwhelm Ukraine’s forces, Blyshchyk said the frontlines in the region remain “under control.”
Ukraine launched its counteroffensive in Kursk — a city in western Russia — in August, with President Volodymyr Zelensky hoping it could be used as a bargaining chip in its war against Russia.
Along with troops lost on Monday, Ukrainian intelligence estimates that an additional 1,770 Russian troops were killed on Sunday, marking yet another colossal loss for the Kremlin.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia have publicly reported their official death tolls in the war, but British intelligence estimates that about 700,000 Moscow soldiers have been killed or wounded during the war, which is approaching its third year.
British Armed Forces Admiral Sir Tony Radakin said Sunday that Russia lost an average of 1,500 soldiers a day in Ukraine in October, marking the worst month of casualties for Moscow’s invasion.
Despite the staggering losses, Moscow has maintained the pressure along the frontlines and continues to slowly gain ground.
While Kyiv hoped that the Kursk incursion would also have forced Russia to move its forces from the frontlines to deal with the counter-invasion, Moscow has instead chosen to send new forces to respond.
The Kremlin has now amassed 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops who are set to be deployed to Kursk in the latest attempt to retake the region, the New York Times reported.
US and NATO officials estimate that about 11,000 North Korean soldiers have spent weeks training in Russia for the Kursk offensive, with some Pyongyang troops already sighted along the frontlines.
