KYIV, Ukraine >> All Ukrainian troops have been forced from parts of Russia’s Kursk region, which Moscow lost control of last year to a surprise Ukrainian incursion, Russia’s top general said in a Kremlin meeting Saturday. Ukrainian officials denied the claim.

Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff for Russia’s Armed Forces, gave Russian President Vladimir Putin the news in a meeting Saturday, Peskov told Russian state news outlet Interfax.

In a statement, Putin congratulated the Russian soldiers and commanders and said that Kyiv’s incursion had “completely failed”.

“The complete defeat of our enemy along Kursk’s border region creates the right conditions for further successes for our troops and in other important areas of the front,” he said.

Ukrainian officials, however, said the fighting was still continuing. “The statements of representatives of the high command of the aggressor country about the alleged end of hostilities in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation are not true,” Ukraine’s General staff said Saturday.

“The defensive operation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in certain areas in the Kursk region continues. The operational situation is difficult, but our units continue to hold designated positions and carry out assigned tasks, while inflicting effective fire damage on the enemy with all types of weapons, including using active defense tactics,” it added..

Gerasimov also confirmed Saturday that North Korean soldiers fought against Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk region. Gerasimov said that they took part in “combat missions shoulder to shoulder with Russian servicemen during the repelling of the Ukrainian incursion” and “demonstrated high professionalism, showed fortitude, courage and heroism in battle.”

In the fall, Ukraine, the U.S. and South Korea all said that North Korea, which previously had supplied weapons to Moscow, had deployed 10,000-12,000 of its troops to Russia to fight in Kursk.

Moscow and Pyongyang until now had responded vaguely to the South Korean and Western claims of the troop deployment, emphasizing that their military cooperation conforms with international law, without directly admitting the presence of the North Korean forces in Russia.

The news comes as U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Vatican City on the sidelines of the pope’s funeral to discuss a potential ceasefire deal.

The presidents met at St. Peter’s Basilica for about 15 minutes, Ukrainian presidential spokesman Serhii Nykyforov said. Zelenskyy’s office initially said that the two leaders would continue negotiations later on Saturday, but Nykyforov later told journalists that there would be no second meeting due to the presidents’ tight schedules.