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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said forces operating in the Kursk region of Russia have captured two North Korean soldiers.

Ukraine’s continued focus on Kursk shows how important Kyiv believes it is to hold on to Russian land, especially if Trump pushes both sides to the negotiating table.

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.

A Ukrainian mopping-up group encountered one surviving North Korean fighter who had set an unsuccessful trap. The soldier attempted to mislead the Ukrainian soldiers and then detonated a grenade to avoid capture,

The 67th Separate Mechanized Brigade repelled an assault of Russian troops near the village of Zhuravka in Sumy Oblast on the border with Russia's Kursk Oblast, according to the brigade's Jan. 15 statement.