Hodges noted it is “remarkable” that Ukrainian forces have held the Kursk bridgehead since August 2024 and managed to build new military capabilities and launch another offensive without Russian commanders detecting it.

Ukraine has largely been driven out of Kurakhove, a battered but strategic town in the Donbas, Russia said. Kyiv’s forces were pressing a renewed offensive in southern Russia.

Ukraine launched a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region Sunday, Moscow and Kyiv said. Ukrainian forces had captured about 500 square miles of the western Russian province in a surprise incursion in August, but Russian and North Korean troops are believed to have retaken 40-50% of that area.

Russian forces continue to make costly but consistent gains in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. They are steadily grinding down a pocket of resistance around the town of Kurakhove and are also fighting to envelop the larger nearby city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian soldiers and officials said.

Putin, unable to dislodge Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, loses face in the lead-up to Trump's inauguration.

Ukraine appeared to launch a fresh offensive Sunday in Russia’s border region of Kursk, where Kyiv’s forces have held territory for several months.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region on Sunday, as Kyiv seeks to reclaim lost territory ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration later this month. Footage shows columns of armored tanks advancing through the snowy landscape toward the village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe.

Russian military commentators say they are ‘worried’ about the multipronged Ukrainian attack in the border region of Kursk