Russia is ‘getting what it deserves’, Ukraine says, after launching an attack on a border area

Ukraine launched an attack on Russia’s southern border town of Kursk, with the presidency saying Russia is “getting what it deserves.”

Ukrainian troops first entered Kursk in August and have held most of the territory they have taken, despite efforts by Russian troops and recently deployed North Korean troops to drive Ukrainian units back to the border.

In a short letter to Telegram on Sunday, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, said: “Kursk region, good news, Russia is getting what it deserves.”

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Counting Disinformation, an official organization, said that the Ukrainian army had suddenly attacked the Russian army in several places.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that the Ukrainians launched an offensive to stop the Russian offensive, according to the TASS news agency. It said both were repelled, adding that a Ukrainian attack consisting of two tanks and seven armored vehicles was defeated near the village of Berdin, 15 kilometers from the border.

CNN cannot confirm battlefield reports.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that in the battles near the village of Makhnovka, the Russian army lost a North Korean army and Russian paratroopers. An army is usually a few hundred soldiers.

Illegal Russian military blogs, which often provide reliable reporting on the conflict in Ukraine, admitted to fighting on Sunday. Another said the Ukrainians were pushing north towards Berdin.

“The enemy threw money into the offensive area in the Kursk region,” another site said on Sunday.

“In order to make progress, the AFU covered the area with powerful electronic radio warfare systems, disrupting the work of our UAVs. [drones],” the blog said. “There are small arms battles, our artillery and tanks are working hard against the enemy.”

A second blog carried the same account, saying that the attack had begun in the Sudzha area, but the Ukrainians had deployed paratroopers and intensified fighting in other areas.

“In this attack the enemy is using minesweepers, tanks and other armored vehicles,” the blog said, adding that the cold weather allowed the attack, but it was not expected to continue. It added that the Russian bombers were working.

The acting governor of Kursk, Aleksandr Hinshtein, said on Telegram that the Deputy Minister of Defense of Russia, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, has arrived in the region. Yevkurov is responsible for military security in the border areas, but it is unclear if his visit is related to the current fighting.

“The Kursk regional government will do everything possible to help our Soldiers in their holy struggle against Nazism,” Hinshtein said.

Ukrainian and western assessments indicate that up to 11,000 North Korean troops have been deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops are occupying a large area after invading the border.

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