Russian forces have likely captured Kurakhovo after two months of intense offensive operations, according to a review by ISW published on the website on Friday.
It is reported that geolocation footage released on December 24 and 25 indicates that Russian troops have recently advanced in western Kurakhovo and reached the windbreaks to the southwest of the settlement. "ISW assesses that Russian forces have likely moved to the administrative borders of Kurakhovo and captured the settlement and fields south of it and north of Dalneye," the review states.
Institute analysts note that Russian sources have made conflicting statements about the scale of the Russian offensive in Kurakhovo: some military bloggers claimed that Russian troops advanced beyond Kurakhovo towards Dachnoye (to the west of Kurakhovo), while others stated that Russian forces have been unsuccessfully attacking the Kurakhovskaya thermal power plant (TPP) to the west of Kurakhovo, which ISW assesses as being outside the administrative borders of Kurakhovo. It is also noted that the OSHV "Khortytsia" acknowledged that Ukrainian forces recently lost unspecified positions in the Kurakhovo direction.
ISW also points out that Russian forces spent just over two months capturing a settlement covering 7.3 square kilometers. Russian troops intensified their offensive operations to seize Kurakhovo in mid-October 2024, and ISW recorded in geolocation footage that Russian forces first entered the settlement at the end of October 2024, concentrating around 35-36 thousand soldiers there in recent months, which, due to the defensive actions of Ukrainian forces, resulted in significant losses for the Russians in terms of personnel and equipment.