Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has deployed nearly 50,000 troops to Kursk, the southern Russian region where Kyiv launched its surprise counteroffensive in the summer.

Ukraine's president says the incursion is limiting the forces Moscow can deploy inside his country.

Vladimir Putin’s much-anticipated second counteroffensive against the three-month-old Ukrainian occupation of Russia’s Kursk region appears to be underway in a much larger fashion than the one launched in September.

President Volodymyr Zelensky's statement came a day after The New York Times reported that Moscow is preparing to launch an offensive in Kursk Oblast with a force of 50,000 soldiers, both Russian and North Korean.