Thousands of Ukrainian troops who stormed into Russia's Kursk region last summer in a shock incursion are nearly surrounded by Russian forces there, in a major blow to Kyiv which hoped to use its presence there as leverage over Moscow in any peace talks.

Ukraine and the US are to hold crunch peace talks in Saudi Arabia from tomorrow following a tense few weeks in which relations between Kyiv and Washington looked more fraught than ever, US officials have said they are planning on using the meeting with their Ukrainian counterparts to determine whether Kyiv is willing to make material concessions