Ukrainian army

South Korea's spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to back Russia's war against Ukraine had been captured by Ukrainian forces.

Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia's military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.

Ukraine said on Monday that its troops killed or wounded at least 30 North Korean soldiers who had been deployed by Russia to its western Kursk region, where Ukraine has seized territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 14 that Russia had begun deploying North Korean soldiers to storm Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.

He spoke after Russian authorities said their firefighters were battling a blaze in the western Oryol region caused by a drone attack, with Ukraine saying it had hit a major oil terminal.

Rescuers were working on Wednesday to find people under the rubble of a building destroyed in a Russian attack that killed six people the day before, Ukrainian officials said.

Since last August, when, with complete surprise to both Russia and the West, the forces of Ukraine invaded the Russian province of Kursk, the question was more about how long they would be able to maintain the roughly 1,000 square kilometers they occupied in just a few days and less about why Kyiv made the move.

Russia today accused the West of seeking a ceasefire in Ukraine to buy time to rearm Kyiv, whose forces are facing serious difficulties on the front lines against the Russian army.

Proto Thema has found itself at a secret location where special forces units made up of Russians – former members of Wagner – are practicing guerrilla city tactics.

Russia said on Nov. 22 it had scuppered Kiev's military objectives for 2025 just after President Vladimir Putin issued a warning to the West by test-firing a new intermediate-range missile at Ukraine.

Putin announced the missile launch in a defiant address late on Nov. 21, saying the conflict in Ukraine had taken on a "global" nature, while hinting at strikes on Western countries.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Wednesday that Ukraine would be permitted to use American-made anti-personnel mines to help it slow Russia's advances on the battlefield.