According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Ukraine has launched a counterattack in Russia’s Kursk region.

With officials in Ukraine also suspecting an operation was underway, Moscow said it met the attack with artillery and air power.

Ukrainian forces entered the Kursk region in August and captured part of the territory. Russian forces have pushed them back in some areas without managing to completely expel them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said security guarantees that would lead to an end to the war would only be effective if the US under Donald Trump provided them.

During a podcast interview with Lex Fridman, Zelensky praised the influence of the new US president and suggested that Trump has the influence to at least stop Russia’s ongoing invasion.

During his election campaign, Trump promised to end the war quickly, without giving details.

Zelensky said: “Trump and I will agree and … together with Europe offer strong security guarantees, and then we can talk to the Russians.”

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, a Ukrainian assault squad consisting of two tanks, a military vehicle and 12 armored fighting vehicles (AFVs) attacked near the village of Berdin at around 09:00 a.m. (0600 GMT) on Sunday.

Russian forces retaliated, it said, destroying both tanks, the military vehicle and seven armored fighting vehicles. The fighting continued, it said.

Russian state news agency Ria released an aerial video of a tank column moving through snow-covered landscapes in daylight and coming under fire, hitting vehicles.

The BBC was not immediately able to verify the Russian footage or claims.

The head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, had previously said that there was “good news from the Kursk region” and that Russia “gets what it deserves.”

Andriy Kovalenko, Ukraine’s top anti-disinformation official, said in a telegram Post from Sunday: “The Russians in Kursk are very afraid because they were attacked from several directions and it came as a surprise to them.”

One Russian blogger, Yury Podolyaka, suggested that the operation may have been a diversionary tactic, while another, Alexander Kots, did not rule out that the main attack could have been launched elsewhere.

Kiev’s armed forces are reportedly suffering from personnel shortages and have lost ground in eastern Ukraine in recent months as Russian troops advanced.

The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched another drone strike on Ukraine overnight.

It said 61 drones were shot down over the Kiev, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr and Khmelnytsky regions

There were no direct hits, but some houses in the Kharkiv region were damaged by an intercepted drone, the air force said.

In November, Ukraine reported that its troops had fought battles with North Korean troops in the Kursk region.

The reported appearance of North Korean soldiers was a response to a surprise attack by Ukrainian troops across the border in August that penetrated up to 30 kilometers into Russian land.

Moscow evacuated nearly 200,000 people from border areas and President Vladimir Putin condemned the Ukrainian offensive as a “major provocation.”

After a fortnight, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief claimed control of more than 1,200 square kilometers of Russian territory and 93 villages.

Part of this territory was recaptured by Russia.