The Ukrainian military continued its drive in Russia's Kursk region late on January 7, claiming it hit a key Russian command post, while Washington is reportedly set to announce a "substantial" final weapons package under the current administration.
AP, citing two senior defense officials, reported that President Joe Biden's administration will announce the aid package during Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit to Ramstein, Germany, on January 9 for the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, a summit of some 50 partner nations.
The officials did not discuss the amount or nature of the package other than to say it would be "substantial," as Biden looks to shore up Ukraine's defenses before he leaves office on January 20.
SEE ALSO: Ukraine Live Briefing: Russia Continues Targeting Civilian InfrastructureOne of the officials said Biden's defense team has been in contact with President-elect Donald Trump's transition leaders regarding "all the issues that we believe are important” regarding Ukraine.
In his nightly video address on January 7, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his team is "thoroughly preparing" for the crucial Ramstein meeting, without elaborating.
On the battlefield, the General Staff of the Ukrainian military said it hit the Russian command post with a "high-precision strike," adding that "a series of recent operations...were coordinated with the Ukrainian Ground Forces who are currently commencing new offensive operations."
It said Russia's 810th Separate Marine Brigade in the village of Bila in the Kursk region was targeted, although it did not disclose the results of the attack.
Dozens of clashes had been reported earlier in the Kursk region. The General Staff said at least 94 battles had taken place in over the previous 24 hours in an operation it said was aimed at "preventing an enemy offensive in the Sumy region" on the Ukrainian side of the border with Kursk.
A spokesman for Ukraine's National Guard said Russia has been forced to transfer units to the Kursk region to reinforce troops there.
"What we are seeing now has an effect not only on the north of the Kharkiv region -- on the enemy's activity along the border with the Sumy region -- but also on other directions of the front," Ruslan Muzychuk said on Ukrainian television.
Ukraine's army also rejected Russia's claim that it had taken the strategic town of Kurakhove, saying it was still repelling attacks near the town despite being outmanned.
Battlefield claims by either side could not be independently verified.
Ukrainian forces resumed offensive operations in several directions within the Kursk region in recent days, which analysts told Current Time gives Kyiv a bargaining chip in any possible cease-fire or peace talks with Moscow.
"It is important for Ukraine to have a bridgehead in the Kursk region as an instrument of pressure in the negotiations and as an opportunity to negotiate a territorial exchange," Ukrainian political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko told Current Time on January 7.
"Ukraine doesn't need any territory in Russia. Ukraine can negotiate to withdraw from the Kursk region, but in exchange, for example, for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kharkiv region. Such an option is possible."
Ukrainian troops first pushed into in a surprise incursion on August 6. They have since resisted Russian attempts to fully expel them.
According to Russian pro-war accounts on Telegram that closely follow and document frontline developments, the attack is being carried out with armored vehicles, mine-clearing vehicles, and electronic warfare systems, which are said to be successfully countering Russian drones.
Russia's Defense Ministry had claimed its troops had taken the Ukrainian town of Kurakhove some 30 kilometers south of Pokrovsk -- the strategic logistics hub that has been the target of Russian forces over the past several months.
The situation there remains unclear as of late January 7.
If Russian forces were to take Pokrovsk, it would represent a major gain for the Kremlin after fighting that has left the city mostly in ruins, with most of its 64,000 prewar population having fled.
Russian advances around Kurakhove and Kyiv's offensive in Kursk come ahead of the inauguration Trump, who has previously said that ending the war in Ukraine would be a priority for his first day in office.
Fesenko said both sides are trying to strengthen their pre-negotiation positions and also "to show their strength, their power to the new U.S. administration in order to put it under military pressure."
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Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Targets Amid Fresh Kursk Offensive
The scale of the current offensive and whether it will lead to changes along the front line remains unclear, but U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on January 6 that Ukraine's positioning in Kursk indeed is critical to possible future peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.
Videos online purported to show columns of Ukrainian military vehicles speeding across snow-covered land in the Kursk region.
The MIG Rossyy channel claimed the Ukrainian military has had "local successes," saying, "These are not sluggish maneuvers of small sabotage groups, but a full-scale attempt to attack.”
Russian forces, supported by the introduction of thousands of North Korean soldiers, have advanced but failed to eject Ukrainian troops entirely from Kursk.
The offensive was reportedly launched from the district center of Sudzha, which has been under Ukrainian control since August, in the direction of Bolshoye Soldatskoye, which lies some 70 kilometers from Kursk city, the region's administrative center.
Zelenskiy said late on January 6 that Russia had suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in Kursk, with nearly 15,000 killed. He did not present evidence to back up the claim.
Ukraine's General Staff said on January 6 that Russian forces have lost 1,550 soldiers over the past 24 hours. It did not elaborate.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said on January 7 that it had inflicted several defeats on Ukrainian units in Kursk.
About half of the land seized in Ukraine's initial offensive has been recaptured since August, but Kyiv still holds Sudzha and about 500 square kilometers of Russian territory.
In November, Ukraine reported its forces had engaged in combat with North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region and Ukrainian officials have claimed that North Korean forces are suffering heavy losses.
The introduction of North Korean troops followed Ukraine's cross-border offensive, which Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned as a "major provocation."