The United States has blacklisted a network accused of aiding financial payments between Russia and North Korea, two isolated countries that have grown financially and militarily closer amid the Kremlin's war in Ukraine.

The United States has imposed sanctions against individuals and entities involved in illegal financial transactions between Russia and North Korea, according to the US Department of the Treasury. As noted by the agency,

There is an air of desperation around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky these days as he tries to convince his Western allies, the United States in particular, that he has a realistic plan to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to give up his maximalist goals and sue for peace.

Russia said on Friday that its army would regain control of its Kursk region "in a timely manner", declining to say how soon this could be achieved. Ukraine on Aug. 6 launched the biggest foreign attack on Russia since World War Two,