Putin rushes to recapture Kursk from Ukrainians before Trump takes office

Vladimir Putin has deployed 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops in an attempt to recapture Kursk from Ukraine before Donald Trump takes office as US president in January.

Ukraine’s top military commander said “tens of thousands of enemy soldiers” had arrived to expel Kyiv’s forces from the Russian enclave, fuelling Western fears of a significant escalation of the war.

Nato allies believe Putin is hoping to recapture territory lost to Ukraine before Mr Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20.

A British defence intelligence assessment seen by The Telegraph shows Russia is likely to ramp up kamikaze drone attacks on Ukrainian positions in the coming days, using new launch sites close to the border.

It was reported that Mr Trump used a phone call with Putin after the presidential election last week to warn the Russian leader against escalating the war, amid fears of a winter offensive boosted by North Korean troops and supplies.

Around 12,000 North Korean conscripts will also likely be involved in the fighting in the Kursk region, under a Russia-North Korea mutual military assistance pact agreed this year.

Ukrainian analysts said that the Kremlin may also be aiming to use its biggest counter-attack in the Kursk region to build momentum and push into Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

Russia has already recaptured roughly half the territory lost to Ukraine in a daring incursion in August.

Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top military commander, said that “tens of thousands of enemy soldiers from the best Russian shock units” were attacking Ukrainian positions.

Credit: 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

As Sir Keir Starmer held talks on the war with Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Monday, Downing Street said both countries would attempt to put Ukraine in “the strongest possible position going into the winter”.

John Healey, the Defence Secretary, said Mr Trump was “exactly right” to warn against escalation and that the US would continue a policy of “security through strength”, despite the incoming president’s threat to cut military aid to Ukraine.

Western diplomats are concerned that Putin will try to rapidly capture territory before Mr Trump’s inauguration to give Russia more negotiating power in any peace talks.

The Kremlin on Monday denied that Mr Trump had spoken to Putin, despite detailed reports of their conversation emerging in US media outlets.

Putin has congratulated Mr Trump on his election victory and called him “courageous”.

During the presidential election campaign, Mr Trump said he would end the war “in a day”.

JD Vance, his running mate, suggested that peace talks would involve territorial concessions by Ukraine.

Volodymr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has cautiously welcomed Mr Trump’s election victory, but called on him to maintain military support in the coming months.

Their call after the result included Elon Musk, whose Starlink technology has been used by Ukrainian forces to direct drones towards Russian targets.

Mr Trump will meet with Joe Biden at the White House on Wednesday to discuss the transition.

Jake Sullivan, Mr Biden’s national security adviser, said on Sunday he would use the meeting to urge his successor to continue American support for Kyiv.

Mr Healey told the BBC yesterday: “I expect the US to remain alongside allies like the UK, standing with Ukraine for as long as it takes to prevail over Putin’s invasion.”

Sir Richard Knighton, the Chief of the Air Staff, added in a speech at the RUSI (Royal United Services Institute) think tank: “We should also remember the old dictum that the best form of defence is attack.”

Since the counter-offense in Kursk, Russia has intensified front-line attacks, swarming Ukrainian oppositions with mass infantry assaults.

In October, Russian forces took more Ukrainian territory than in any other month since mid-2022.

Fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region is now focused on the southern sector of the front line.

There, Russian forces have skirted around major Ukrainian defences into open areas with only scattered and weak defensive positions.

Ukrainian forces are suffering from a shortage in manpower and weapon supplies.

The Biden administration has pledged to spend the remaining money for Ukraine authorised by Congress in the next 10 weeks, including $4.3 billion (£3.3 billion) in redirected American weapons and $2.1 billion in new contracts from US companies.

Russian soldiers have pushed towards Pokrovsk, a town that had a pre-war population of 60,000.

It is a major supply hub for Ukrainian forces and is considered a lynchpin for defensive positions.

Significant fighting has also been reported in the fortress town of Kurakhove, to the south of Pokrovsk.

The Ministry of Defence believes kamikaze drone attacks will increase in the coming weeks, after a 35 per cent rise in launches in the last month.

Russia has continued to invest in new drones and launch sites. Intelligence officials believe the limiting factor on more attacks is personnel, not equipment.

DeepState, a Ukrainian military blogging channel, warned of an impending “catastrophe” in Kurakhove because Russian forces were storming from the “north, south and east”.

“The loss of Kurakhove is only a matter of time,” it said.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, at least six people were killed on Monday night in Russian attacks on the cities of Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia.

A Russian missile also hit Mr Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyi Rih.

Ukrainian officials said that 10 people were injured in the attack. Photographs showed smoke pouring from a five-storey residential apartment block.

Oleksandr Vilkul, head of Kryvyi Rih defence council, called Russia “a monster” for using high-precision missiles to hit civilian targets.

In Russia, officials said that 13 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the Kursk and Belgorod regions on Monday morning.

This came a day after Ukraine launched its biggest attempted drone strike on Moscow since the start of the war.

In Kursk city, reports on Sunday said a dozen or so Russians who fled from Sudzha in August held a rally demanding that the Kremlin compensate them for losing their homes.

This was a rare unsanctioned protest against the Kremlin, which has banned dissent.