Ahead of Trump’s return to office, Ukraine and Russia battle for Kursk

KYIV — With nine days to go before President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, Russia and Ukraine are locked in an intense battle to control a patch of Russia’s Kursk region that is expected to be a key negotiating point in the peace talks Trump has pledged to hold.

Ukrainian troops launched a counterattack in the region last weekend, attempting to retake some of the territory it first seized last summer and then lost — with the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office boasting on social media that Russia was “getting what it deserves.” The assault came after Russia started sending thousands of North Korean troops into battle in Kursk last month, using them in what Ukrainian troops have described as waves of cannon fodder.

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