During the Kursk operation, the Russian Federation lost at least 80 000 soldiers killed or wounded.
This was stated by Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky in an interview with The Washington Post.
He refused to disclose Ukrainian losses, but said they were significantly lower than Russian losses. According to the commander-in-chief, the operation eased the pressure on the eastern front. Syrsky gives the following arguments:
- a third of Russian guided bombs were used by the Russians in the Kursk region, not in Ukraine;
- Russian fiber-optic drones, which are impossible to jam, first appeared on the battlefield in Kursk, not in eastern Ukraine;
- The DPRK troops, who fought in the Kursk region, have not yet participated in combat missions in Ukraine.
Kursk operation
The Kursk operation began on August 6, 2024. In October, it became known that the first soldiers from the DPRK had arrived in the Kursk region. It was about 12 thousand soldiers.
The General Staff reported on February 6 that during the operation, the enemyʼs total losses amounted to almost 40 thousand people, of which more than 16 thousand were killed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky reported the Russian offensive in Kursk on February 7. In early March, Russian propaganda actively promoted theses about the mass retreat of Ukrainian troops in Kursk and their encirclement by the Russian army. On March 12, the General Staff confirmed the significant advance of the Russians in the region, but at that time rejected the statements about the encirclement. On May 21, the General Staff said that the Ukrainian operation in the region was ongoing. In the spring, the Russians began to advance in the Sumy region.
As of July 23, the General Staff publishes the following map:
It shows what territory of the Russian Federation Ukraine controls and how far the Russians have advanced in the Sumy region.
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