Ukrainian troops attempt to repel a Russian assault in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, 3 December 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/NIKOLETTA STOYANOVA
After months of fighting, the Russian military claimed on Monday morning to have captured the Donetsk region town of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine, though the fall of the city has yet to be confirmed by Kyiv.
Posting on its Telegram channel, the Russian Defence Ministry said that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) had lost some 80% of its combat forces, or over 12,000 troops, as well as at least 40 tanks and other armoured vehicles in the battle for the town.
“For two months of hostilities near Kurakhovo, the daily losses of the AFU averaged from 150 to 180 servicemen killed and wounded,” the ministry wrote, though it didn’t specify how many Russian troops had died fighting to capture the town.
While Kyiv has yet to officially confirm the fall of Kurakhove to Russian troops, in an AFU General Staff briefing given on Monday morning it was announced that Ukrainian forces had repelled 27 attacks by Russian units in and around Kurakhove.
An unidentified source in Russian security services reportedly told Russian state news agency TASS that fighting was ongoing for control of an administrative building inside the Kurakhov Thermal Power Plant, though on Sunday several pro-Russian bloggers reported the raising of a Russian flag over the western outskirts of Kurakhove.
Capturing Kurakhove, once a key Ukrainian stronghold with a pre-war population of 18,000, is an important strategic objective for the Russian military that would allow it to continue its Donbas offensive, and one that could be disastrous for Kyiv, as most AFU logistics in the area operate through the town
