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

Ukraine has launched a fresh offensive in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian defence ministry says. In a statement, the ministry said efforts to destroy the Ukrainian attack groups were ongoing. Officials in Ukraine have also suggested an operation is under way.

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.