Day 1033 On 22 December, there were many interesting updates from the Kursk direction. Here, the fight for Kruglyenke reached a brutal new phase as Russians finally decided to give their North Korean allies fire support.

However, their concentrated advancing forces quickly came under devastating HIMARS cluster munitions fire as Ukrainians lured the North Koreans directly into a trap. After a series of failed mid-wave attacks by North Korean forces, capturing Kruglyenke remains the top priority for the Russian counter-offensive. Securing Kruglyenke would enable the North Koreans to establish fire control over the primary logistics route supplying Ukrainian forces in Novoivanovka, thereby threatening their rear positions. This would place the Ukrainian defenders at risk of encirclement, potentially forcing their withdrawal and paving the way for a Russian breakthrough in Novoivanovka.

Controlling both Novoivanovka and Kruglyenke would further allow Russian and North Korean forces to mount a direct assault on Malaya Loknya, slicing off a significant portion of the Kursk salient in the process. Despite suffering heavy losses, the North Koreans managed to secure a foothold in the forest north of Kruglyenke through sheer numbers. Control of this larger forest gives the North Koreans a significant tactical advantage. The size of the forest allows North Koreans ample space to gather and hide their forces in preparation for an assault further toward the south. In contrast, Ukrainian forces are limited to smaller forest patches near Kruglyenke, putting Ukrainians at a severe tactical disadvantage.

However, due to the low skill level of the North Korean soldiers, they were unable to properly conceal themselves or establish defensive positions. This left them highly vulnerable to Ukrainian artillery strikes, drone attacks, and targeted raids, resulting in severe losses and effectively halting their advance. This caused Russian generals to realize that they must assist their North Korean allies to avoid the complete destruction of their force, but most importantly, to prevent the loss of their tactical foothold in the forest. Ukrainian forces in the area reported a significant increase in Russian artillery operations, with Russian aviation deploying as many as 40 glide bombs daily on Ukrainian positions around Kruglyenke. The Ukrainian positions in the narrow tree lines with limited space to conceal their troops or establish effective defenses exposed them to the Russian bombardment. However, the Ukrainians recognized a tactical opportunity in this vulnerability. They understood that by vacating these positions, the advancing North Korean forces would inevitably face the same challenges.

As the Ukrainians withdrew, the North Koreans moved into the narrow valley where the constrained terrain worked against their strategy of using overwhelming numbers as they were forced to bunch together. Ukrainian fighters carefully monitored the movement of North Korean forces, whereafter they relayed the coordinates to HIMARS operators as they loaded their rocket systems with cluster munitions. What followed was a catastrophic outcome for the North Koreans as the Ukrainian strikes devastated their tightly packed assault units, leaving them with no room to maneuver or retreat. Footage of the aftermath of the Ukrainian strikes shows that the valley had become a kill zone and that the North Korean attack was decisively crushed. Overall, the Ukrainians took advantage of the concentrated North Korean mid-wave attacks and forced them into a narrow area of the valley with little space to maneuver, effectively destroying their entire assault group with deadly efficiency. Therefore, the tactical withdrawal not only minimized Ukrainian losses but also turned the tables on the North Koreans, inflicting heavy casualties and stalling their advance.

Interestingly, the South Korean intelligence agency recently reported that North Koreans have suffered over a thousand casualties already, only during the first week of offensive operations in Kursk. The consistent disasters that the repeated North Korean attacks had turned into will likely soon force them to halt all offensive operations to recuperate and reorganize, further delaying their advance. In our daily frontline report, we pair up with the military blogger Reporting from Ukraine to keep you informed about what is happening on the battlefield in the Russo-Ukrainian war. Read also:

• Frontline report: Ukrainian artillery stops North Korean mass infantry charge near Cherkasskoe
• Frontline report: Ukrainian cluster shells shatter North Koreans in Kursk massacre, survivors refuse to fight
• Frontline report: Ukrainians send 100+ North Korean soldiers to Kursk hospitals in failed offensive