Kyiv captures first North Korean POWs in Kursk as Moscow claims town in Donetsk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the country’s military has captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region of Russia, adding that they had survived and were communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine.

“As with all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving the necessary medical assistance,” Zelensky said on X.

Russia’s defence ministry has claimed the army has gained control of the settlement of Shevchenko in Ukraine‘s eastern Donetsk region.

The town is just a few miles from the outskirts of Pokrovsk, a city that has been the object of Russia’s wider offensive in the Donetsk region for months.

It is a linchpin of the region’s defence, sitting on key logistical routes feeding the rest of the wider area.

Russia often prematurely claims control of area in Ukraine but DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker with close ties to the military, records Shevchenko as almost completely occupied.

A fire at an industrial plant in Russia’s Volga region is under control, local authorities said on Saturday, days after the blaze, reportedly at an oil depot strategically positioned near a military air base began following a Ukrainian drone attack.

The authorities on Wednesday said “an industrial plant” had been hit, without disclosing further details about the site.

“The area of the fire at an industrial enterprise in Engels was reduced by 80 per cent. The amount of smoke has also decreased significantly,” the governor of the Saratov region, Roman Busargin said in a Telegram post on Saturday.

It was not clear whether a state of emergency, declared in Engels, a city of 200,000 people some 450 miles southeast of Moscow, was still in effect. Two firefighters died earlier this week while trying to stop the fire spreading.

The Ukrainian military said on Wednesday it had set fire to an oil depot that serves an air base for Russian nuclear-capable bombers.

In December 2022, three Russian air force personnel were killed when a drone was shot down there.

Ukraine hopes a meeting between its president Volodymyr Zelensky and US president-elect Donald Trump will happen immediately after he takes office.

“We are waiting for a meeting between our presidents because for us the main thing is to work together with America… we are preparing for contacts at the highest and high levels immediately after the inauguration,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said.

Mr Trump has also expressed willingness to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin in the near future, as a step towards his promise of ending the war immediately after entering office. He has not explained how he will do so.

A planned visit to Kyiv by the incoming Trump-appointed Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg has been postponed due to legal reasons.

Ukrainian spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said the delay was due to the US Logan Act, which restricts unauthorised negotiations by private citizens with foreign governments.