Ukraine has lost over 40% of the territory in Russia's Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults, a senior Ukrainian military source said.

Ukraine has lost more than 40% of the territory in Russia's Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted waves of counterassaults, a senior Ukrainian military source said.

Russia is now said to have prepared about 60,000 men to take Kursk back in its entirety, reportedly involving troops from North Korea.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that an attack by his forces on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning was carried out using "a new conventional intermediate-range missile". He said that the missile, codenamed Oreshnik, was a response to the use by Ukraine of US and UK long-range weaponry to hit targets inside Russia.

Oil climbed more than 1% on Thursday after Russia and Ukraine launched missiles at each other, overshadowing the impact of a bigger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude inventories. Ukraine fired British cruise missiles into Russia on Wednesday,