Russia says street battles start in strategic East Ukraine city

Street battles have started in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kurakhove, Russian security agencies told state-run Tass, as Kremlin troops attempt to press their ground advantage at a time each side has ramped up drone launches.

“There is urban fighting in the territory” of the city, the agencies said, adding without evidence that Ukraine’s military was transferring additional troops into the area.

On Saturday, Ukrainian Commander in Chief Oleksandr Sysrksyi, in a Facebook post, called the situation in the areas surrounding Kurakhove and Pokrovsk “challenging” and “trending toward escalation.”

Russia’s accelerated ground advance in recent weeks threatens to overtake the southern part of what was once Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

After capturing the town of Selydove, Kremlin troops have aimed for Kurakhove — a crucial logistical hub in the southern Donetsk region.

Seeking to encircle the city, whose pre-war population of about 18,000 has dwindled to several hundred, Vladimir Putin’s troops have advanced near villages several miles to the south and east, according to the monitoring platform Deep State, which maintains cooperation with Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.

Ukraine’s General Staff reported 39 attacks by Russia in at least eight settlements around Kurakhove on Sunday alone. It made no reference to street fighting within the city, though, in an operational post on social media.

The pace of Russia’s advance in eastern Ukraine has increased since mid-October, posing a threat to the entire southern part of the Donetsk region. While Moscow’s troops are incurring significant losses due to their “meat-grinding” approach, they still outnumber and out-gun Ukraine’s forces — and have been reinforced by the arrival in Russia of thousands of North Korean soldiers.

Separately on Sunday, Ukraine peppered the Moscow region with almost three dozen drones, causing flights to be halted for a few hours at airports around Russia’s capital, while a large wave of Russian UAVs targeted Ukraine.

Russia’s defense ministry said a total of 84 UAVs were launched by Ukraine toward “civilian infrastructure,” including those fired at areas close to Moscow, adding that all were shot down or suppressed. Some damage resulted from debris that fell in populated areas.

Ukraine’s General Staff said in a Telegram post that it struck an arms depot in Russia’s Bryansk region, closer to the nations’ border, early on Sunday, triggering a blaze. The strike wasn’t confirmed by Russia.

The UAV barrage sustained by Ukraine was “a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X. Over the past week, Russia launched more than 800 guided aerial bombs, around 600 strike drones, and nearly 20 missiles of various types, he said.

The stepped-up exchange of drone fire is taking place as officials in Moscow and Kyiv monitor the fallout from the reelection of Donald Trump as U.S. president, marking a potential shift in Washington’s support for Ukraine. Trump has said his goal is to quickly end the war, which is approaching the 1,000-day mark.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday cited “positive” signals around Trump, even while the Republican is “less predictable” than President Joe Biden.

“He believes he can make a deal that will lead to peace,” Peskov said in an interview with state broadcaster Rossiya 1’s Kremlin correspondent. “At least, he talks about peace; he does not talk about confrontation or about wanting to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister said Saturday that preliminary work is underway to set up a meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump, the timing of which is unclear.

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