Kyiv's army said it had struck a Russian military “command post” in Russia’s Kursk region. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Russian forces continue to make costly but consistent gains in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. They are steadily grinding down a pocket of resistance around the town of Kurakhove and are also fighting to envelop the larger nearby city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian soldiers and officials said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said during his evening address that Ukraine "continues to maintain a buffer zone on Russian territory, actively destroying Russian military potential there."

It comes as Ukraine's president says only the US can provide security guarantees leading to an end to the war.

Ukraine launched a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region Sunday, Moscow and Kyiv said. Ukrainian forces had captured about 500 square miles of the western Russian province in a surprise incursion in August, but Russian and North Korean troops are believed to have retaken 40-50% of that area.

KYIV

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Russia had suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in southern Russia's Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 killed.

Ukrainian officials say a Russian missile attack in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 13 civilians and injured about 30 others.

The Russian military has not commented. President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In a video message from outside the bombed site, Fedorov said the Russian shelling began at about 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Wednesday.