Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will again call on allies to boost his country's air defenses at a meeting this week in Germany, as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes over later this month with a vow to end the almost three-year war quickly.

"In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroops," Zelenskyy stated.