The situation on the front lines is “challenging” and “tends to escalate,” Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on November 9.

“The situation remains challenging and is trending towards escalation. The enemy, taking advantage of its numerical advantage, continues its offensive operations and concentrates its efforts mainly in the directions of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove,” Syrskyi said in a post on Facebook.

“We have numerous reports on the preparation of North Korean soldiers to participate in combat operations together with Russian forces,” he added, without providing further details.

Syrskyi reported what he told General Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s top commander in Europe, earlier in the day.

According to a Bloomberg analysis published on November 1, Ukraine has lost 1,146 square kilometers of its own territory since the launch of the invasion of the Kursk Oblast in early August, with the week to November 1 considered the worst in terms of territory lost . throughout 2024.

On November 2, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukraine was facing “one of the most powerful” Russian offensives since the start of all-out war.

In the autumn, large swaths of Ukrainian territory, sometimes including entire towns, have been lost almost daily in the southern Donetsk Oblast, while Russian forces have also made significant operational gains near Toretsk, Khasiv Yar and Kupiansk, as well as on their territories. own territory in Kursk Oblast.

‘Crimea is gone’ – Senior Trump adviser says Ukraine must have ‘realistic’ war objectives

A senior adviser to Donald Trump has said Ukraine must be “realistic” in its aims for the war, adding that the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula had “disappeared”.