An official in Russia's Kursk border region partly occupied by Ukraine told AFP that authorities were working "constantly" to secure the return of Russian civilians caught behind the front lines -- after facing rare public criticism.

Russian forces have retaken 63.2% of the territory captured by Ukraine in the Kursk region of western Russia, the Russian defence ministry said on Friday.

A South Korean lawmaker said Seoul's intelligence showed some 3,000 North Korean troops have been wounded or killed in Kursk.

Since the new push in Russia’s Kursk Oblast in early January, Ukraine has made small gains and managed to capture the first North Korean prisoners of war in the area but experts have raised concerns about Kyiv’s use of limited resources while fierce battles rage elsewhere.

Ukraine launched a daring offensive into Russia's Kursk region, hoping to stretch Russia's resources and gain a new bargaining chip.

When North Korea’s 12,000-strong 11th Army Corps deployed to Kursk Oblast in western Russia to help Russian troops battle an invasion by a powerful Ukrainian force, they brought along anti-tank vehicles, howitzers and rocket launchers.

What’s old is new again as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year. During World War II, some armies—the British Army, in particular—bolted metal spans to the top of tank chassis and used the resulting “funnies” to rapidly erect bridges across vehicle-halting gaps on the battlefield.

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

The New York Times has reported, quoting a senior US defense official, that within the next two months, North Korea is expected to send more troops to aid Russian forces in the western region of Kursk,

North Korea will send Russia another 150 short-range ballistic missiles this year. Pyongyang is also likely to transfer additional howitzers, as the head of Ukraine's intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview with The War Zone.

In dozens of aid packages over the 35 months—and counting—of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the administration of former U.S. Pres. Joe Biden supplied the Ukrainian military with more than 10,000 Javelin anti-tank guided missiles, or ATGMs.