Russia appeared to ready itself for talks on the future of Ukraine with United States President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his swearing-in on Monday. "No special conditions are needed for this. What is required is the mutual intent and political will to have a dialogue," said Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday. But Russia expressed its parameters very quickly. Putin aide Nikolai Patrushev told Russian news outlet KP that a Ukraine settlement should be reached by the US and Russia, without Ukraine and without the European Union.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said the army gained control of the settlement of Shevchenko, near the logistical centre of Pokrovsk, a key target in its advance through Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine has yet to acknowledge the loss of the town. Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said it repelled 46 of 56 Russian attacks around a dozen towns in the Pokrovsk sector and several clashes were ongoing. A Ukrainian drone hit one of Russia's largest oil refineries – in Taneko, Tatarstan – according to Russian Telegram channel ASTRA. Fuel oil that spilled from wrecked Russian tankers has spread into the Sea of Azov and reached the shores of Ukraine's partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region, a Moscow-installed official said.

Ukrainian forces have killed or wounded more than 1,000 North Korean troops Russia has sent to fight them, according to Kyiv and officials in South Korea. "According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address on December 23. South Korean intelligence put the North Korean dead and wounded at 1,100, and said the North was preparing to send more troops. North Korea sent 11,000 troops to fight in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine counter-invaded in August. North Korean troops were evidently untrained in dealing with Ukrainian drones, which took a high toll.

North Korean soldiers began to go home in body bags over the weekend, as they fought alongside Russians in large numbers for the first time. "Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday. Ukraine's military intelligence (GUR) reported the North Koreans were embedded with Russian Marines and Airborne troops – elite units – in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine has counter-invaded. "At one of the positions in the Kursk region, the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea- DPRK] army soldiers were effectively'covered' with [First Person View] drones," the GUR said in a statement, estimating combined losses of Russians and North Koreans at 200 on the first day of engagement.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that the thousands of North Korean soldiers expected to reinforce Russian troops on the front line in Ukraine are pushing the almost three-year war beyond the borders of the warring parties. Western leaders say North Korea has sent some 10,000 soldiers to help Russia's military campaign and warn that its involvement in a European war could also unsettle relations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia. Zelenskyy said he spoke to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and told him that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already at military bases close to the Ukrainian front line and that he expects that deployment to increase to 12,000.

United States defence secretary Lloyd Austin has waded in on reports that North Korea was preparing to enter the Ukraine war with troops. "If they are co-belligerents, if their intention is to participate in this war on Russia's behalf, that is a very, very serious issue," Austin said. Austin was returning from his fourth visit to Kyiv, where he announced a 400m package of US weapons for Ukraine. John Kirby, White House national security spokesman, said Washington believes that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers arrived this month by sea to Vladivostok, Russia's largest Pacific port. "These soldiers then travelled onward to multiple Russian military training sites in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training," Kirby said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian troops are locked in a bitter battle for the town of Toretsk in the eastern region of Donetsk, which Russian troops entered last Friday. A spokesperson for Luhansk Technical University said Russian troops were demolishing the town as they advanced. "They erase the city with artillery. We have already seen it in other towns of Donbas. They are trying to find weak points in our defence with such small strikes," Anastasia Bobovnikova said.

The American-led U.N. command on Saturday dismissed as unsubstantiated accusations from North Korea that U.S. troops at a border village tried to provoke its frontline troops with "disgusting acts." A North Korean military statement Friday warned U.S. soldiers to stop what it called "hooliganism" at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom or they'll meet a "dog's death any time and any place." It said U.S. troops pointed their fingers at North Korean soldiers and made strange noises and unspecified "disgusting" facial expressions. It also said that American troops encouraged South Korean soldiers to aim their guns at the North. A statement from Christopher Bush, a spokesman for the U.N. command, said they looked into the allegations and determined they were unsubstantiated.

SEOUL/UNITED NATIONS – The American-led U.N. command on Saturday dismissed accusations from North Korea that U.S. troops at a border village tried to provoke its front-line troops with "disgusting acts." A North Korean military statement Friday warned U.S. soldiers to stop what it called "hooliganism" at Panmunjom or they will meet a "dog's death any time and any place." It said U.S. troops pointed their fingers at North Korean soldiers and made strange noises and unspecified "disgusting" facial expressions. It also said American troops encouraged South Korean soldiers to aim their guns at the North. Christopher Bush, a spokesman for the U.N. command, said it had looked into the allegations and determined they were unsubstantiated.

North Korea on Friday accused U.S. soldiers of trying to provoke its frontline troops with "disgusting" acts and encouraging South Korean soldiers to aim their guns at the North. A North Korean military statement warned U.S. soldiers to stop what it called "hooliganism" at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom or they'll meet a "dog's death any time and any place." "GIs hurled fully armed MPs of the South Korean puppet army into perpetrating such dangerous provocations as aiming at" the North Korean military side last week, said the statement carried by Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency. It said U.S. troops pointed their fingers at North Korean soldiers and made strange noises and unspecified "disgusting" facial expressions. North Korea occasionally accuses South Korean and U.S. troops of trying to provoke its border troops and vice versa.