Ukraine has launched a military counterattack in the southern Russian Kursk region, a move officials said was designed to stop a Russian offensive.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will urge allies to boost his country's air defenses at a meeting this week in Germany.

Russia said Sunday that Ukraine had launched a "counterattack" in the western border region of Kursk, where Kyiv's forces began a shock ground offensive last August.- Airports shut - Both Russia and Ukraine have exchanged regular attacks since the year began.

Russian forces continue to make costly but consistent gains in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. They are steadily grinding down a pocket of resistance around the town of Kurakhove in the southern Donbas region and are also fighting to envelop the larger city of Pokrovsk to the north, Ukrainian soldiers and officials said.

UKRAINE has stunned Vladimir Putin’s forces with a counter offensive in the Kursk region while Russia suffers “significant” troop losses – including North Korean soldiers.

Russia said Sunday that Ukraine has launched a new counterattack in the western Kursk region aimed at repelling Russian and North Korean troops trying to retake territory that Kyiv’s forces captured last August.

(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in fighting in Russia's southern Kursk region. Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,