North Korean troops have been pulled back from the frontline amid devastating losses, according to Ukrainian and American officials.

The reports have been backed by South Korea’s spy agency, who said that the North Korean troops had been withdrawn from the war frontline around the middle of January, the National Intelligence Service said.

“Since mid-January, there have been no signs of North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region engaging in combat,” the NIS said.

Chinese president Xi Jinping has accepted Russia’s invitation to attend the commemorations of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, Russia’s TASS news agency reported today..

“Chinese president Xi Jinping has accepted an invitation to take part in the celebrations on 9 May in Moscow on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War,” TASS cited Russian ambassador to China, Igor Morgulov, as telling Russian state television.

The Kremlin said in December that it had invited “many countries” to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, which Russians call the “Great Patriotic War”.

Moscow is yet to receive a good offer to start talks on Ukraine, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said in remarks published this morning.

“It is important that words be backed up by practical steps that take into account Russia’s legitimate interests, demonstrating a readiness to eradicate the root causes of the crisis and recognise the new realities,” deputy foreign minister Mikhail Galuzin told RIA state news agency in an interview.

“Concrete proposals of this nature have not yet been received,” he said.

Mr Galuzin’s comments were the latest in a series of contradictory or guarded messages from both Moscow and Washington in recent days about possible talks between Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin on bringing an end to the war that Moscow started nearly three years ago.

The attack, which was claimed by the Russian defence ministry but has not been acknowledged by Ukraine, was reported exactly six months after Kyiv launched its initial cross-border assault into Kursk last August.

Russia’s air defence units intercepted and destroyed 15 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said this morning.

Of these, seven of the drones were downed over the southern Krasnodar region, while the rest were intercepted over several other regions in Russia’s south and west, the ministry said on the Telegram channel.

The Russian envoy to the United Nations said Russia was waiting for “appropriate signals” from Washington on contacts with Moscow.

Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said Russia was ready for talks with the US on Ukraine “on an equal basis”, in comments to the Russia’s state-run news agency RIA.

“We are open to contacts but on an equal basis and, as a requirement, taking account of Russian interests,” Mr Nebenzya said.

“We are waiting for the appropriate signals from the American side,” he said.

His comments were issued shortly before the US president Donald Trump said he believed the US was making progress in talks with Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Donald Trump said he believed the US was making progress in its talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine, but refused to share any details about his chat with Russian president Vladimir Putin

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump indicated that the two men had been in contact.

This would mark the first officially acknowledged conversation between Mr Putin and a US president since early 2022.

On being asked whether he had had his conversation with Mr Putin since he became president on January 20 or before, the US president said: “I’ve had it. Let’s just say I’ve had it…And I expect to have many more conversations. We have to get that war ended.”

“If we are talking, I don’t want to tell you about the conversations,” he said. “I do believe we’re making progress. We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia war.”

The president said the US was in touch with Russia and Ukraine. “We’re talking to both sides,” he said.