KYIV, Ukraine — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he will urge allies at a meeting this week in Germany to boost Ukraine’s air defenses, while both sides said Kyiv’s forces pressed new attacks Sunday in Russia’s Kursk region.

Dozens of partner countries will participate in the meeting of the Ramstein group Thursday at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Zelenskyy said, “including those who can help boost our capabilities not only to defend against missiles but also against guided bombs and Russian aviation.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will attend the meeting, which originally had been scheduled for October with President Joe Biden present. The session was postponed in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton striking Florida.

The Biden administration is pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before Trump is sworn in Jan. 20. Trump claimed during his election campaign that he could end the nearly 3-year-old war in one day, and his comments have raised questions over whether Washington will continue to be Ukraine’s biggest military backer.

Zelenskyy said last week that Trump is “strong and unpredictable,” and those qualities can be a decisive factor in his policy approach to the war.

Russia controls a fifth of Ukraine and last year advanced slowly in eastern areas despite high losses of troops and equipment. The war’s trajectory isn’t going in Ukraine’s favor, with the country shorthanded on the front line and in need of more support from its Western partners.

In Ukraine’s incursion in the Kursk region, Zelenskyy said Russian and North Korean troops suffered heavy losses in fighting.

“In battles yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,” he said. “This is significant.”

Zelenskyy said last month that 3,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in Kursk, where Ukrainian forces launched an incursion in August, dealing a blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine.

The incursion didn’t change the dynamic of the war, and military analysts say Ukraine has lost 40% of the land it initially captured.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that Ukraine launched a fresh offensive in the Kursk region. It claimed that its forces pushed back Ukrainian troops, but some reports from Russian military bloggers indicated that Moscow’s forces faced significant pressure.

A ministry statement said Ukrainian forces attacked near the village of Berdin with two tanks, a mine-clearing vehicle and 12 armored combat vehicles with paratroopers. Two Ukrainian attacks were repelled, it said.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Andriy Yermak said there was “good news” from Kursk and that Russia was “getting what it deserves,” while Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s official Centre Against Disinformation, said on Telegram that Russian troops were attacked in several places.