KYIV, Ukraine — Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have captured the stronghold of Kurakhove after a monthslong battle, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Monday, adding the wrecked town to the Kremlin’s list of conquests during the almost three-year war.
The claim, which drew no response from Ukrainian authorities, came a day after the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had pressed new attacks in Russia’s Kursk border region.
The inauguration in two weeks’ time of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has brought a new element of uncertainty and triggered an apparent effort by both sides to establish battlefield gains before any possible peace talks.
Trump hasn’t detailed his plans for accomplishing his goal of ending the fighting, but his presence in the White House is likely to significantly affect how the war plays out.
Kurakhove is a key stronghold for the Ukrainian army on the eastern front line in the partially occupied Donetsk region. It has an industrial zone, a thermal power plant and a reservoir. It sits on a highway between eastern and southern Ukraine.
In November, The Associated Press reported from the town that some 7,000-10,000 people likely remained in Kurakhove. Its prewar population was about twice that. The town has been under relentless attacks from artillery, multiple rocket launchers, powerful guided bombs and drones that have shattered buildings.
Ukrainian officials usually comment on major battlefield defeats only days after Russia announces them.
Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment said in an assessment published on the social platform X that there has been some cheering news for Ukraine. “Ukraine is grinding down Russian forces. Russian gains are small relative to costs. There has been no collapse of the front,” Kofman wrote.
On the other hand, he said, “Ukraine is losing territory. The coldest part of the winter is yet ahead. The current theory of success is unclear, or what resources will be made available by the West in 2025.”
Russia has this year been driving westward in a slow and costly effort to capture all of Donetsk. Ukraine is short of troops on the front lines and is straining to hold back the bigger Russian army.
Russian forces are trying to close in on nearby Pokrovsk, a key road junction and rail distribution center furnishing supplies to a broad span of the Ukrainian front line.
In 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the Donetsk and neighboring Luhansk regions, which make up the Donbas industrial area, together with southeastern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. But Russian forces don’t fully control any of them.
Ukraine is keen to get new Western military aid delivered quickly, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday he hoped more would be pledged later this week at a meeting with Western partners in Germany.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that Ukraine launched a fresh offensive in the Kursk region, where military analysts estimate Kyiv recently lost 40% of what its forces captured in a lightning insurgency five months ago.
Russian officials claimed their forces pushed back the Ukrainian push, but some reports from Russian military bloggers indicated that Moscow’s forces faced significant pressure.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank that monitors the conflict, said Ukrainian forces on Sunday resumed offensive operations in at least three areas of Kursk and made tactical advances.
