Russia said on Monday its forces had made important gains in eastern Ukraine while continuing to fend off a new Ukrainian offensive inside the Kursk region of western Russia, where a second day of fierce fighting was under way.

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 launches a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region, raising questions about its strategic goals and potential impact on the war's trajectory and upcoming peace talks.

Ukraine launched a fresh operation in Russia's southern Kursk region, Moscow said on Sunday, after Ukrainian officials and military bloggers reported new attacks from Kyiv in a region where Moscow is eager to reassert its grip.

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

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Russia had suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in southern Russia's Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 killed.

Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on 17 July 2014, as fighting raged between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces, the precursor of Russia's invasion in 2022.

Ukraine's fresh offensive in Kursk comes nearly six months after Kyiv first sent troops into the western Russian region.

A total of 144 combat clashes have occurred on the battlefield since the start of 9 January, with most of the fighting taking place on the Pokrovsk, Kursk and Kurakhove fronts. Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook,

Ukraine has renewed its offensive in the Russian Kursk Oblast, catching the Russian military and Kremlin off-guard, while the incoming Trump administration is preparing to send a fact-finding trip

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, at their final meeting in Germany, urge Trump to not give up on Kyiv’s fight.