Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that some 38,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded fighting in Russia's western Kursk region since August, with Kyiv now launching a fresh offensive in the border region.

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 and are also fighting to envelop the larger nearby city of Pokrovsk, Ukrainian soldiers and officials said.

Kyiv troops attacked in at least three areas within the Kursk region, some using armoured vehicles, according to the Institute for the Study of War

Ukraine launched a new offensive in Russia's Kursk region Sunday, Moscow and Kyiv said. Ukrainian forces had captured about 500 square miles of the western Russian province in a surprise incursion in August, but Russian and North Korean troops are believed to have retaken 40-50% of that area.

Russia has claimed that its forces captured a battered but strategic town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a day after Kyiv launched a counterattack in the Russian region of Kursk.

"Such fire damage is an integral part of combat operations of Ukraine's Defense Forces units, which are engaged in combat operations on the territory of the Russian Federation," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said.

Russian defence officials claimed Ukrainian troops were urged to surrender after precise strikes on their positions. Paratrooper units targeted Ukrainian command posts, and drones with loudspeakers called for surrenders.

Ukraine said Tuesday its forces struck a Russian military "command post" in Russia's Kursk region during "combat operations," while backtracking on a claim it had launched a fresh offensive in the border area.