Ukraine is leaning into its efforts to hold onto the Russian territory of Kursk amid intense pressure from Russian and North Korean forces to take it back, apparently gambling that the region could be a valuable card in potential negotiations with Moscow.

After weeks of Russian and North Korean advances in Kursk, Ukraine launched a minor offensive on Sunday to push forces back and retain a grip on the roughly 300 square miles Ukrainian troops still hold.

With less than two weeks before President-elect Trump takes office with a promise to negotiate an end to the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to be doubling down on Kursk as both a strategic necessity and a bargaining chip, despite lingering questions about the operation’s tactical value.

Zelensky called the Kursk operation, which was launched in a surprise attack in August and marked the first time Russia was invaded by a foreign ally since World War II, “one of our biggest wins, not just last year but throughout the war.”

“Russia had to pull almost 60,000 troops off the Ukrainian front to deal with it. As of this Monday, it’s been five months since our troops have maintained a buffer zone on Russian territory,” he wrote Thursday on the social platform X.

Ukraine likely has the ability to hold onto that territory for the foreseeable future, but troops face a stark challenge against the some 12,000 North Korean troops allied with Russian forces in Kursk.

Serhiy Grabsky, a reserve colonel in Ukraine’s military, said the new push in Kursk was more about military strategy than negotiations and was focused on distracting Russia.

“The main idea of this in simple words: to keep Russian forces busy,” he said.

Grabsky said it was also about a message to Trump.

“This action ... shows Western alliances that Ukraine did not lose battle capabilities, that Ukraine can and will resist with American support or without it.”

Since Russia began taking back territory over the fall, Ukraine has lost about 40 percent of the........

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