War in Ukraine: kyiv states that 63,000 Russian soldiers were killed or injured in the Koursk border region

The president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday, May 21 that “more than 63,000” Russian soldiers were killed or injured in the Russian region of Koursk from the Ukrainian offensive last August.

For the leader, these are “considerable losses” for Russia, which refuses to advance in a balance. The Russian Ministry of Defense has not published a balance since the fall of 2022, when He had admitted the death of less than 6,000 soldiers From the beginning of the conflict.

Kyiv fights in the Russian territory to “protect” Souumy and Kharkiv

For his part, Russian President Vladimir Putin went to this region of Koursk on Tuesday to meet local authorities. One first from the Kremlin said at the end of April that he has completely assumed this sector in part controlled until then by the Ukrainian forces.

The Russian Army personnel head, Valéri Guerassimov then congratulated himself on the “liberation” of “the last town in the territory of the Koursk region, the town of Gornal”, during a meeting through videoconferences and transmit on Russian state television.

This statement from Moscow contradicts Volodymyr Zelensky. The latter continues to affirm Wednesday that the Ukrainian army “continues its active operations” in the Koursk region. According to the Ukrainian leader, it is an “active and effective defense” of the Ukrainian regions of Soumy and Kharkiv.

“The more the fight in the enemy territory is multiplied, the more our communities are protected,” said the president of Ukraine.

In the apogee of his incursion in the Koursk region in August 2024, Ukraine had managed to control up to 1,400 km². But the Russian army reacted by leading a counteroffensive and pushing kyiv’s forces.

For this, Moscow asked North Korean soldiers. 11,000 were deployed in this sector last October, according to Ukrainian, American and South Korean information. If Russia has long denied North Korean participation, Vladimir Putin finally praised at the end of April The “heroism” of these soldiers who have “taken an active part” in the fight and “defended the country as theirs.”