The Kremlin said on Friday that Russia's forces would restore control of its Kursk region "in a timely manner", declining to say how soon this could be achieved.

The number of Russian troops pulled over to Kursk Oblast, announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky in early September, was higher — 60,000.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia was ramping up drone production by around ten times to nearly 1.4 million this year in a bid to ensure the Russian armed forces win in Ukraine. Since Russia sent tens of thousands of soldiers into Ukraine in February 2022,

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the Russian military received around 140,000 drones in 2023 and that Moscow plans to increase this number tenfold in 2024.

The United States has blacklisted a network accused of aiding financial payments between Russia and North Korea, two isolated countries that have grown financially and militarily closer amid the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.

The United States imposed sanctions on Thursday on a network of five groups and one person, based in Russia and the Georgian region of South Ossetia, for enabling payments between Russia and North Korea,

The U.S. State and Treasury departments announced new sanctions Thursday on five groups and one person said to be involved in illicit payment mechanisms between Russia and North Korea. In a statement issued by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control,