North Korean troops have not been seen on the frontlines in Russia’s Kursk region for several weeks, a Ukrainian military official said Friday, amid reports of mass casualties among Pyongyang’s forces.

Russian news outlets are actively disseminating false claims that Ukrainian troops have "killed and raped" dozens of civilians in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye in Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukrainian forces are conducting operations.

Law enforcement authorities in Russia on Friday accused Ukrainian troops of killing 22 civilians in an occupied village of the Kursk region, including eight women who were allegedly raped before being executed.

Ukraine controls dozens of border settlements in the Kursk region of western Russia since launching a surprise offensive in August and says about 2,000 civilians still live in areas it occupies.

Ukrainian military said on Friday its missile and artillery forces had hit a Russian army command post in the Kursk region as a part of its effort to disrupt Moscow's troops operations and logistics.

On August 6, Kyiv began the military operation into Kursk, which appeared to take Russian President Vladimir Putin and even Ukraine's allies by surprise. Kyiv later announced it had seized 500 square miles at what was then the lightly-defended border of the Russian region.

A British man captured fighting on the Ukrainian side in Russia's Kursk region will face terrorism and mercenary charges that could see him jailed for years, Russian state investigators said on Thursday.

North Koreans are privately questioning why Ukraine has suddenly become their enemy, sources told Radio Free Asia.

Ukraine, in turn, has tried to secure and extend its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. Kyiv's missiles and drones also have struck Russian oil facilities and other key targets important for Moscow’s war machine. Both sides have taken tough ...

Recent reports from the “occupied” Kursk Oblast in Russia suggest that the Kremlin’s forces are being bogged down by defenses that Moscow originally erected against threats from the west. In addition to Russian “dragon’s teeth,” which limited the movement of armored vehicles and tanks, winter mud and craters further impacted a recent attack.

A ministry statement said 11 of the 17 drones were downed between 7:50 p.m. and 10 p.m. Moscow time (1650 GMT and 1900 GMT) over the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces hold a chunk of territory since staging a cross-border incursion last August.

Russian troops regained control from Ukraine of the village of Nikolayevo-Darino in Russia's western Kursk region, the Defence Ministry said on Monday. Moscow's forces have been