Reports from Kiev indicate that the first casualties have been recorded in the ongoing conflict between Ukrainian and North Korean soldiers in the Kursk border region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the news at a press conference in Budapest,

Russia on Friday refused to say whether North Korean troops were fighting alongside its army against Ukraine, a day after Kyiv claimed inflicting "losses" on Pyongyang's soldiers.

Kyiv endured one of its longest assaults on Thursday, while Russian forces launched dozens of drones over the capital in an eight-hour overnight attack. As the Russia-Ukraine war nears 1,000 days, Russia's growing use of drones is stretching Ukraine's air defenses and putting residents on edge.

Russian forces fired lone drones and swarms of drones that entered Ukrainian airspace from various directions and at a variety of altitudes, officials said, in an apparent attempt to stretch air defense systems and unnerve city residents.