Kyiv prevents Russia from crossing the river, denies losing 480,000 soldiers

Ukraine says it has thwarted an attempt to cross the Oskil River in the east while Russia says it has seized two more settlements in the past day.

Ukraine prevents Russia from crossing the river

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on December 3 that the Ukrainian army had repelled Russian forces trying to establish a position west of the Oskil River, north of the town of Kupiansk in Kharkiv province.

The Ukrainian military released footage of the fighting, which is said to have taken place near the village of Novomlynsk, located about 20 kilometers north of Kupiansk, according to The Kyiv Independent .

Russian troops stepped up their efforts near Kupiansk in early September, reaching the city’s industrial outskirts to the northeast. Ukrainian forces have recently repelled several Russian attempts to enter the town.

A bridge over the Oskil River near the village of Borova, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine in February 2023.

Thanks to their numerical advantage, Russian forces managed to cross the Oskil River to establish a bridgehead on the other side, Ukraine said.

Ukrainian forces have heavily reinforced the western bank of the Oskil River to prevent Russian forces from reaching Kupiansk from the north. Reports of Russian troops successfully crossing the river near Novomlynsk emerged in late November.

The Ukrainian military said the western bank of the Oskil River was under Kyiv control, with footage of Ukrainian soldiers raising the flag in Novomlynsk.

Zelensky rejects Ukraine's casualty figures

In an interview with Kyodo News published on December 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky disputed Western media reports that as many as 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the conflict with Russia.

"Recently, some newspapers, I believe American, reported that 80,000 Ukrainians were killed. I want to tell you, no, (the number of deaths) is less, much less," President Zelensky said, while refusing to provide detailed casualty figures.

"However, we must be honest, we do not know how many Ukrainians have died in the controlled territories of Ukraine," President Zelensky added.

President Zelensky denies information that Ukraine lost 80,000 soldiers

Mr Zelensky's comments may have been a reference to a report by The Wall Street Journal published on September 17 that 80,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed in the conflict and another 400,000 wounded.

After The Wall Street Journal reported the report, Ukrainian lawmakers were quick to deny the claims, with Roman Kostenko, secretary of the parliament's defense committee, saying the numbers were "exaggerated." The lawmaker suggested that 50,000 soldiers killed could be an estimate, although he acknowledged that he did not have the most accurate data and that even his figure could be an overestimate.

The Wall Street Journal 's figures are broadly in line with estimates published by The Economist on November 26, which suggested that 60,000 to 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed and 400,000 wounded.

In February, Mr Zelensky admitted that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed.

Ukraine emphasizes NATO membership

Ukraine will not accept any security guarantees other than full membership in NATO, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in a statement published on the ministry's website.

"We believe that the only real security guarantee for Ukraine is Ukraine's full membership in NATO," the statement said, marking the 30th anniversary of the Budapest Memorandum under which Kyiv gave up its nuclear arsenal.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stressed that it would reject any alternative to this.

On November 29, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha sent a letter to his NATO counterparts, calling on the alliance to invite Kyiv to join instead of waiting for the conflict to be resolved. The letter was sent just before the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Belgium on December 3-4. AFP on December 3 quoted a diplomat as saying that many NATO countries, including the US, were indifferent to inviting Ukraine to join the alliance despite pressure from Kyiv.

NATO has previously stressed that Ukraine will join the alliance and that the path to membership is irreversible, but has not given a specific deadline. NATO has a principle of not admitting members in conflict.

Ukraine tests domestic missile, Russia conducts drills in Mediterranean

Ukraine has tested a new domestically produced missile and is ramping up its production, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on December 3. According to Reuters, Zelensky added that he had received a report from the military about the test.

"We can thank the Ukrainian missile developers. We are accelerating the production process," he said, without providing further details.

President Zelensky said in August that Ukraine had conducted the first test of a domestically produced ballistic missile.

Ukraine is boosting domestic production to speed up arms supplies and reduce its dependence on Western aid shipments.

Russian warship launches missiles in the Mediterranean

On the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that Russian Navy corvettes equipped with new-generation supersonic cruise missiles conducted exercises in the eastern Mediterranean.

The crews of the warships launched Zircon (Tsirkon) hypersonic anti-ship missiles, while a Russian submarine launched Kalibr cruise missiles, a weapon capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

On the nearby coast, a missile system carried out an Onyx anti-ship missile launch, Reuters reported.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/chien-su-ukraine-ngay-1014-kyiv-ngan-nga-vuot-song-bac-tin-mat-480000-quan-nhan-185241203115930236.htm