"Such fire damage is an integral part of combat operations of Ukraine's Defense Forces units, which are engaged in combat operations on the territory of the Russian Federation," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that some 38,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia's western Kursk region since August.

Ukraine has largely been driven out of Kurakhove, a battered but strategic town in the Donbas, Russia said. Kyiv’s forces were pressing a renewed offensive in southern Russia.

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

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.

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

Ukraine launched a fresh operation in Russia's southern Kursk region, Moscow said on Sunday, after Ukrainian officials and military bloggers reported new attacks from Kyiv in a region where Moscow is eager to reassert its grip.

Russia sent one of its top generals, General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, to organize Russia’s defense in Kursk Oblast against a renewed Ukrainian attack, The Telegraph reported on Jan. 5.

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.

Russian military commentators say they are ‘worried’ about the multipronged Ukrainian attack in the border region of Kursk

Ukraine's president told podcaster Lex Fridman that 3,800 North Koreans had been killed or wounded fighting alongside Russia but many more could come.