{"id":1512132,"date":"2025-01-06T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-07T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1512132"},"modified":"2025-01-06T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-01-07T02:40:00","slug":"russia-achieves-major-battlefield-breakthrough-in-eastern-ukraine-as-trump-inauguration-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/russia-achieves-major-battlefield-breakthrough-in-eastern-ukraine-as-trump-inauguration-nears\/1512132\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia Achieves Major Battlefield Breakthrough In Eastern Ukraine As Trump Inauguration Nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia Achieves Major Battlefield Breakthrough In Eastern Ukraine As Trump Inauguration Nears<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Russia on Monday announced a key breakthrough in eastern Ukraine, saying its forces have\u00a0captured the “important logistics hub” of Kurakhove<\/strong>, following months of steady gains.<\/p>\n

Russian forces “have fully liberated the town of Kurakhove \u2014 the biggest settlement in southwestern Donbas<\/strong>,” the Defense Ministry (MoD) announced on Telegram.<\/p>\n

The MoD claimed further that the Ukrainian army had lost more than 12,000 of the 15,000 troops deployed to defend Kurakhove<\/strong>, figures which are not independently verifiable. The military also said Ukraine lost\u00a0about “3,000 pieces of various weapons and military hardware, including 40 tanks and other armored combat vehicles.”<\/p>\n

Illustrative file image: Reuters<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The city has long been a strategic Ukrainian army stronghold in the Donetsk region, with an industrial zone and a (since shuttered) thermal plant and a reservoir. The city’s importance is also in its location, sitting\u00a0on a central highway connecting eastern and southern Ukraine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The fight for\u00a0Kurakhove has been on since mid-October, during which time heavy shelling has persisted. The Russian MoD statement has additionally described Kurakhove as “a powerful fortified area with a developed network of pillboxes and underground communications.”<\/p>\n

A Ukrainian military official has claimed the Russian victory declarations are premature. “As of this morning, battles were ongoing within [the city] limits, so the enemy\u2019s announcements about capturing the city are clearly rushed,” a spokesman said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, there is some independent confirmation of the Russian breakthrough via Associated Press<\/em> and other regional sources<\/a>:<\/p>\n

According to Meduza\u2019s military analysts, Russian forces reached the center of Kurakhove in mid-December, encircling nearly the entire city from the north, east, and south, and raising the Russian flag over the municipal government headquarters. At the time, however, Ukrainian forces still controlled the power station\u2019s industrial zone and the pipe plant on the western side of the city. Ukrainian troops were forced out of the industrial zone just before New Year\u2019s day and are now holding positions in Dachne<\/strong>, a village on Kurakhove\u2019s outskirts, Meduza\u2019s analysts say.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

DeepState, an OSINT project with close ties to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry,\u00a0also shows<\/a>\u00a0that Russian forces have seized Kurakhove. This comes after Ukrainian analysts\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0that Russian troops were advancing in the area on January 5.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Overhead view of the war-ravaged city of Kurakhove:<\/p>\n

#UkraineRussiaWar<\/a>
\n\ud83c\udf10 Place#Kurakhove<\/a>
\n\ud83d\udd70 Date: ~21.12.2024
\n\ud83d\udccc Coordinates: 47.9781945, 37.2814659
\n\ud83d\udc69\u200d\ud83d\ude80 Squad#110Brigade<\/a>
\n\ud83d\udcdd Description: Russian military raised a flag on the roof of a building in Kurakhove.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udda5 id: 21122024.1644
\n\u2709\ufe0fsourcehttps:\/\/t.co\/Vz8VhSuaBb<\/a>
\nMap:\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/fAx6gwBebp<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Military Summary (@MilitarySummary) December 21, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n

Both warring sides have been seeking to achieve as much battlefield dominance as possible before Donald Trump takes office in two weeks<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Moscow was already in the driver’s seat, the capture of\u00a0Kurakhove is being widely viewed as a decisive victory which will provide Russia with clear major leverage for any potential ceasefire negotiations<\/strong> under a new Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Analyst Michael Kofman of the Carnegie Endowment was quoted in AP as saying the future looks bleak for Kiev<\/a>: “Ukraine is losing territory. The coldest part of the winter is yet ahead. The current theory of success is unclear, or what resources will be made available by the West in 2025,” he summarized.<\/p>\n

Map source: ISW\/Newsweek<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

And Washington Post writes<\/a>, “Ukraine is in an increasingly dire state as Russia captures territory at the fastest pace since the start of the invasion, with Moscow capitalizing on its greatest advantage: manpower.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ukraine has in the past days launched a significant counteroffensive in Russia’s Kursk territory, but this accomplishes little strategically where the main theatre of war is happening in Donetsk. Russia has been patiently seeking to gain back ground in the border territory, with the population still evacuated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 01\/06\/2025 – 16:40<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/geopolitical\/russia-achieves-major-battlefield-breakthrough-eastern-ukraine-2-weeks-trump<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russia Achieves Major Battlefield Breakthrough In Eastern Ukraine As Trump Inauguration Nears Russia on Monday announced a key breakthrough in eastern Ukraine, saying its forces…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1512133,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1512132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbimBl-6lne","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2025\/01\/kurakhove-l9kZid.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1512132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1512132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1512133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1512132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1512132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1512132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}