Russian troops pressing their slow advance through eastern Ukraine took control of two settlements in Donetsk region, Russia's Defence Ministry said on Tuesday.

A video released last week shows Ukrainian authorities interrogating two North Korean soldiers captured in the Kursk region of Russia. In the video, one of the soldiers expressed a desire to stay in Ukraine;

North Korean troops have been deployed to bolster Russian forces in the Kursk border region with Ukraine, where they are gaining battlefield experience despite initial heavy losses.

After a battle in Russia's snowy western region of Kursk this week, Ukrainian special forces scoured the bodies of more than a dozen slain North Korean enemy soldiers. Among them, they found one still alive.

Two captured North Korean soldiers were questioned about fighting with Russian forces against Ukraine. And NBC News' Janis Mackey Frayer spoke with former North Korean soldiers now in exile about the brutal conditions they found serving in the country's army.

A North Korean-made mobile surface-to-air missile system has appeared for the first time in the Ukraine conflict. A previously unidentified air defense system seen in the footage of a strike released by the Russian side appears to be a North Korean analog of the Russian Tor short-range SAM system.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted videos Sunday of two North Korean soldiers captured while fighting in Russia's Kursk region. They are "the first captured soldiers from North Korea," but "there will undoubtedly be more,

The South Korean intelligence service has published additional reports concerning North Korea's involvement in the war in Ukraine. According to this information, North Korean soldiers fighting in the Kursk region have been instructed to commit suicide if they are captured by Ukrainian forces.