The president of the Czech Republic has let 40 citizens join the fight in Ukraine, just after Kyiv launched an offensive in Kursk.

Poland is ready to supply Ukraine with electricity, Minister of Climate and Environment Paulina Hennig-Kloska said on Tuesday, referring to threats that Slovakia could cut off power supplies to its neighbour.

The recent pace of Russian advance in Ukraine has been the lowest in six months, which is likely to worry Russian President Vladimir Putin ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump 's return to the White House on January 20.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday that Russia had suffered heavy losses in five months of fighting Ukrainian forces in southern Russia's Kursk region, with nearly 15,000 killed.

Russia launched nearly 100 attacks in the Kursk region in the last 24 hours, according to the latest update from the Ukrainian general staff, in a bid to reverse Kyiv’s recent gains. It made up nearly half of the assaults reported by Ukraine over the last day across the entire, roughly 640-mile front line.

A Scot has been killed while serving as a medic with the Ukrainian army, his family has said. Jordan Maclachlan, 26, from Ardnamurchan in the Highlands, volunteered to help Ukraine after Russia's invasion in February 2022. His family said he died on Friday while serving on the frontline.

The surprise attack seeks to reverse Ukraine’s decreasing hold of the region. Since Kyiv’s forces gained partial control of Kursk following a daring cross-border assault last August, Russian troops, aided by North Korean soldiers, have halved the territory held by Ukraine, albeit while suffering thousands of casualties.

Ukraine’s president claimed that his troops were ‘actively destroying Russian military potential’ in the Kursk region of Russia

The claim, which drew no response from Ukrainian authorities, came a day after the Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian forces had pressed new attacks in Russia’s Kursk border region.

Ukrainian forces on Sunday launched a new offensive inside Russia's western Kursk border region, going on the attack with substantial forces.

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.