Russia claims it has captured another town in eastern Ukraine

6 January 2025, 10:24

Russian combat training in trench conditions
Russia Ukraine. Picture: PA

Kyiv has yet to confirm the loss.

Russian troops in eastern Ukraine have captured the stronghold of Kurakhove after a battle lasting months, Russia’s Defence Ministry claimed.

The capture adds the wrecked town to the Kremlin’s list of conquests in the partially occupied Donetsk region during the almost three-year war.

The claim, which drew no response from Ukrainian authorities, came a day after the Russian Defence Ministry said Ukrainian forces had launched a new thrust in Russia’s Kursk border region.

The inauguration in two weeks’ time of US President-elect Donald Trump has brought a new element of uncertainty into the conflict and triggered an apparent effort by both sides to establish battlefield gains before any possible peace talks are held.

Mr Trump has not 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. It has an industrial zone, a thermal power plant and a reservoir. It also sits on a major road running 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 pre-war population was about twice that number. 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.
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, which is a key road junction and a rail distribution centre, furnishing supplies to a broad span of the Ukrainian front line.

Russia Ukraine
Russian forces have been pressed recently in the Kursk region (Russian Defence Ministry Press Service via AP)

In 2022, Moscow illegally annexed the Donetsk and neighbouring Luhansk regions, which make up the Donbas industrial area, together with south-eastern provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. But Russian forces do not fully control any of the four.

Ukraine is keen to get new Western military aid delivered quickly, and President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday he hoped more would be pledged later this week at a meeting with Western partners in Germany.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Ukraine launched a fresh offensive in the Kursk region, where military analysts estimate Kyiv has recently lost 40% of what its forces captured in a lightning insurgency five months ago.

Officials claimed Russian forces repelled the Ukrainian push, but some reports from Russian military bloggers indicated that Moscow’s forces face significant pressure.

By Press Association

Latest World News

See more Latest World News

Video footage shows the convoy had emergency lights flashing when it was hit

Israel admits ‘mistakenly’ killing 15 aid workers after video leak contradicted official version of events

Jaguar Land Rover has paused shipments to the US in the wake of 'Liberation Day' tariffs

Jaguar Land Rover halts shipments to US in wake of tariffs as Trump insists he'll win 'economic revolution'

Flowers and toys left on a swing seat to commemorate victims killed in Russia's missile attack on Friday

Death toll from Russian strike on Zelenskyy's home town rises as 18 confirmed dead - including nine children

Donald Trump's 10% tariff on UK products has officially come into force

Trump tariffs come into force as global stock markets plunge deeper into the red

Tom Howard

British tourist killed after being struck by boulder on trek through Himalayas

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, a car burns following a Russian missile attack that killed more than a dozen people, including children, in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

Russia kills 16 people including three children in missile strike on Zelenskyy's home town, with dozens wounded

Travel influencer Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, made an illegal visit to North Sentinel Island

Tourist who left Coke for world's most isolated tribe 'could have wiped them all out' - and police 'can't go collect can'

White House weighs in to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

White House looking to support ‘censored’ anti-abortion activists in Britain

This image provided by NASA shows Nick Hague, right, Suni Williams, and Butch Wilmore. (NASA via AP)

Stranded NASA astronauts reveal they were almost trapped in space 'forever' after horror malfunction

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen'

Donald Trump demands France 'free Marine Le Pen' after far-right leader found guilty of embezzlement in 'witch hunt'

China will impose a 34% retaliatory tariff on imports from the US

China announces additional 34% tariffs on US imports in retaliation over Trump's 'Liberation Day' levies

Friends of Prince Andrew say he's "unsurprised" Giuffre made the post

Prince Andrew 'not surprised' his accuser shared shock post saying she had 'four days to live'

South Korea's impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol

South Korea president Yoon Suk Yeol removed from office as impeachment upheld over martial law declaration

Virginia Giuffre

Woman driving Prince Andrew accuser Virginia Giuffre during crash that left her with 'four days to live' breaks silence

Exclusive
'Donald Trump has made Putin comfortable,' Mikhail Khodorkovsky has warned

'Trump has made Putin comfortable' despite massive Ukraine war losses, exiled former oligarch tells LBC

The bodies of Andrew Searle and his wife Dawn were discovered by a neighbour.

British couple found dead in south of France home being ‘treated as murder-suicide’