The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken believes that Ukraineʼs position in Russiaʼs Kursk region is critically important for any future negotiations.
This is reported by Agence France Presse.
According to Blinken, the administration of the US President Joe Biden wants to make sure that "Ukraine has the strongest card to play."
“Their position in Kursk is important because certainly that’s something that will affect any negotiations that might happen next year,” Blinken told reporters in Seoul.
These words were uttered against the backdrop of reports of an alleged counteroffensive by Ukrainian military personnel in the Kursk region.
According to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, over the past 24 hours, January 5, Ukrainian fighters repelled 47 attacks by the Russian army on the Kursk salient. The Russians also carried out guided air bomb strikes and artillery shelling.
The Kursk operation began in August 2024. According to the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi, during this time the Russians lost 38 000 soldiers killed and wounded and over a thousand units of military equipment.
To repel the Ukrainian offensive, Russia brought in troops from North Korea. In late 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that more than 3 000 soldiers from the DPRK had already been killed or wounded in combat.
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