Kursk

The news comes as US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Vatican City on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral to discuss a potential ceasefire deal.

Despite recent comments by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian forces have not been encircled by Russian troops in the Kursk region or anywhere else on the frontlines.

The two captured North Korean soldiers were fighting alongside Russian troops in Russia’s Kursk border region, Ukraine’s president said on Saturday.

Ukraine has launched a new assault into Russia’s Kursk region, five months since Kyiv’s surprise incursion into the same border area. Russia has been trying to force the Ukrainian troops out of its territory by sending in reinforcements, including the North Korean soldiers.

Speaking during his nightly address on Saturday, Zelenskyy claimed “up to a battalion” of Russian paratroopers and North Korean soldiers were killed over a period of two days near a village in the Kursk region.