Russia and Ukraine battled inside Kursk, with waves of tanks, drones and North Koreans

Five months after Ukrainian forces stormed across the border in the first ground invasion of Russia since World War II, the two countries’ militaries are engaged in some of the fiercest clashes of the war there, fighting gain land and leverage in the conflict.

The intensity of the battles recalls some of the worst sieges in eastern Ukraine over the past three years, including on towns like Bakhmut and Avdiivka, whose names now evoke memories of the massacre of thousands of people. series against soldiers on both sides.

The fighting in Russia’s Kursk region has taken on significant significance for the territory’s ability to play a role in any ceasefire negotiations. Faced with the prospect of an unpredictable new US president – who has vowed to quickly end the war without clarifying the terms – Ukraine hopes to use Russian territory as a bargaining chip.

Russia, relying on North Korean reinforcements, hopes to knock that territory out of Ukraine’s control.

“Here, the Russians need to take this territory at any cost and are putting all their effort into it, while we are doing our best to hold it,” said Sergeant Major. Oleksandr, 46 years old, commanded a Ukrainian infantry platoon. “We are trying to preserve, destroy, destroy, destroy — so much that it is hard to comprehend.”

He and other soldiers, who asked to be identified only by their first name or military address, said the wave of attacks by North Korean infantry had made the battles much fiercer than before.

Sergeant Jr. “The situation got significantly worse when the North Koreans started arriving,” said. Oleksii, 30 years old, platoon leader. “They are putting pressure on our front, finding weaknesses and overcoming them.”

Russia, with the help of about 12,000 North Koreans, recaptured about half of the territory it lost over the summer. Its attacks over the past week have continued to deepen into Ukrainian-held territory.

But Ukrainian forces have also launched attacks in recent days, seeking to secure an area west of Sudzha, a small town in Russia about six miles from the border that has become a anchorage of Ukrainian forces, which occupied about 200 square miles in August. .

“If they continue to apply pressure and we don’t push back, the enemy will feel superior,” said Andrii, 44, a military intelligence officer. “When someone repeatedly hits you and you don’t fight back, the attacker will feel psychologically comfortable, even relaxed.”

The Russians have largely stopped the attack, but fighting continues and the situation remains unpredictable, soldiers said.

The intensity of the battles on the approach to the Russian border was clearly visible: A steady stream of tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles rolled over broken and exploded equipment.

Russian bombs and missiles exploded with devastating force in border villages, and Ukrainian missiles could be seen hurtling across the sky in the opposite direction.

Tens of thousands of drones also hunt for targets. They do transform the battlefieldAlthough Ukraine has improved its electronic warfare capabilities, it limits the effectiveness of drones that rely on radio signals. Russia has now flooded the scene with drones guided by ultra-thin fiber optic cables, with a range of more than 10 miles.

Ukrainian soldiers said the best defense against them today is handguns.

The new fighting takes place against a backdrop of extreme political instability. US President-elect Donald J. Trump spent months during the election campaign questioning US military support for Ukraine. He said he wanted the war to end quickly but did not say how.

Russian forces have been on the offensive for more than a year in eastern Ukraine, have made steady progress despite staggering losses.

With its incursion, Ukraine aims to create a buffer zone to protect hundreds of thousands of civilians in the city of Sumy, less than 20 miles from the border with Russia. Ukraine also wants to relieve pressure on the eastern front by luring the Russians back to their lands.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the operation sent a strong message to the world that Ukraine could do more than just play defense.

“It was one of our victories, I think one of the biggest, not just last year but throughout the war,” Mr. Zelensky said Thursday in Germany, meeting with representatives of the nations. Military support for Ukraine.

However, some military analysts have warned that Ukraine’s Kursk operation could cause the country’s forces to become increasingly spread out and lose territory in its eastern Donbas region.

Many soldiers fighting in Kursk believe the painful losses in eastern Ukraine would have been worse without their operation.

“We have to understand that the Russians use the most elite soldiers and the best reserves in this area,” said Captain Oleksandr Shyrshyn, 30, commander of a battalion of the 47th Mechanized Brigade. . “Considering what they can do in other parts of Ukraine, that’s good.”

He was still stunned from a battle a few days earlier to hold off a major Russian attack.

Russian troops attacked Ukrainian positions in six waves, using more than 50 tanks, armored personnel carriers and other vehicles.

While dozens of enemy soldiers were killed and wounded and a large amount of Russian equipment was destroyed, the Russians advanced several miles, Captain Shyrshyn said.

“When the first wave comes, we focus on it, deal with it and then the next wave will come,” he said. There was no time to redirect artillery or other resources when the next wave moved from a different direction of attack.

“We fell behind,” he said. “Then the next wave came and one of them reached the required section and completed his task.”

It’s hard to see how many people in the West treat the war in Ukraine like a video game and refuse to acknowledge the threat Russia poses to the world, he said.

He acknowledged Ukrainian morale had declined during nearly three years of war, but said most soldiers still understood why they were fighting. “Stopping means our death, that’s all,” he said.

Some Ukrainian soldiers believe that North Korea’s participation in the war will worry European countries and their allies.

They said the North Korean army fought as a disciplined, dedicated and fearless force, often moving in large formations on foot, even crossing minefields while under heavy artillery fire. and surveillance drones. Ukrainian authorities on Saturday said their forces Arrested two North Korean soldiers and they were by far the first to be captured alive.

Sergeant. Oleksandr, the platoon leader, said the carnage in Kursk was more horrifying than anything he had witnessed since joining the army in 2014.

“You look and you can’t fully understand where you are, seeing how many people we destroy every day,” he said.

He compared it to Bakhmut, when machine gunners had to be frequently replaced because they could not withstand the pace of killing. “After two hours of letting so many people lie down, they couldn’t take it anymore,” he said.

“Same here now,” he said, sharing a mobile phone video showing the aftermath of a recent attack. The fields were littered with corpses, torn, twisted and piled in ways that made it difficult to count the dead.

“The worst is for the infantry,” he said. “When you’re sitting there and they’re coming at you, and things are flying at you.”

Anastasia Kuznietsova Report contributions.