Ukrainian troops are facing down a ferocious Russian counteroffensive in Kursk as Putin seeks to take back Russian land before any talks.

Experts tell Andy Gregory and Tom Watling that the real question is how much Kyiv’s troops are able to inflict casualties on the Russians as the price for taking the territory back

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to Kursk, the southern Russian region where Kyiv launched its surprise counteroffensive in the summer.

The Russian counteroffensive in western Russia’s Kursk Oblast is off to a bloody and chaotic start. After six days, Ukrainian drone operator Kriegsforscher has identified 77 destroyed Russian armored vehicles along the northwestern edge of the 250-square-mile salient Ukrainian troops occupy in Kursk.

Russia has amassed a large force of tens of thousands — including recently arrived North Korean troops — to carry out an assault on the Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk region expected in the coming days,

Ukrainian forces repelled a major Russian assault in Russia's Kursk Oblast and neutralised a Russian assault battalion. Source: Anastasiia Blyshchyk, spokeswoman for the 47th Separate Mechanised Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,

NATO allies believe Russian President Vladimir Putin aims to reclaim territory lost to Ukraine in the Kursk region before Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, reports The Telegraph. Western diplomats caution that Putin might act swiftly to capture this area,