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.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will urge allies to boost Ukraine’s air defenses at a meeting this week in Germany, while both sides said Kyiv’s forces pressed new attacks Sunday in Russia’s Kursk region.

Kyiv renewed its offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, as Ukraine tries to hold territory there ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. Since Ukraine’s initial incursion into Kursk in August — the first invasion of Russia since World War II — Moscow has regained much of its lost territory.