Offensive operations by Russia’s army have increased across the front line, according to social media posts by Ukrainian officers, an analysis of information from the General Staff in Kyiv and soldiers speaking to CNN.

However, spokesperson Lin Jian rubbished Mr Zelensky’s claim there were “many more” Chinese citizens fighting alongside Russians against Ukraine after the latter released a video of a Chinese soldier taken by Ukrainian forces, one of two Chinese nationals he said were captured fighting for Putin.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said it destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 29 over the southern Rostov region and 69 over the Krasnodar region. No injuries were immediately reported. However, almost 50 buildings were evacuated due to the threats posed by the drones.

Russia's defence ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that Ukraine had carried out six attacks on Russian energy infrastructure over the past day, in violation of a U.S.-brokered moratorium on hitting energy infrastructure targets.

Maj. Oleh Shyriaiev's first experience of North Koreans came at the contact line near Kruglenkoe -- a village around 8 miles from the Ukrainian border in Kursk.

The Trump administration says it will soon be clear if Russia's Vladimir Putin really wants a peace deal in Ukraine, as France and Britain accuse him of playing for time.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has publicly acknowledged for the first time that his troops are active in Russia's Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. "We continue to carry out active operations in the border areas on enemy territory, and that is absolutely just - war must return to where it came from," he said on Monday.

America’s fiercest adversaries are using the Ukraine War as a “proving ground” to train and prepare for future battles against the West, a Ukrainian commander who fought North