Russian president Vladimir Putin showed his intention to visit Pyongyang soon, North Korea’s state media KCNA reported on Sunday. Putin also thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his invitation to visit as he met North Korean foreign minister Choe Son Hui who visited Russia last week, KCNA said citing a foreign ministry official.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy fears that if Donald Trump returns to the White House next year he could make unilateral concessions to Russia that override Ukraine’s interests and branded the former US president’s claims he could stop the war in 24 hours as “very dangerous”.
Zelenskiy has also spoken of putting together “new bilateral agreements” that will “reanimate” the system of international law. He added that new military packages will be delivered “in the coming weeks and months”.
Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said on Saturday that Ukraine was under the absolute control of the United States. The populist politician, who is against military aid to the war-torn country and opposes sanctions against Russia, also reiterated his opposition to Ukraine’s bid to join Nato. “Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country,” Fico told public broadcaster RTVS. “Ukraine is under the total influence and control of the United States.” Slovakia is a member of both Nato and the European Union. Despite Fico’s criticism, it was only Hungary that vetoed the €50bn of aid that other EU members had voted to give Kyiv last December.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has reported that Ukraine maintains a presence on the left bank of the Dnipro River and has continued to repel Russian attacks despite “logistical concerns”.
Russian lawmakers have prepared a bill allowing for the confiscation of money and property from people who spread “deliberately false information” about the country’s armed forces, a senior member of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin said on Saturday, Reuters has reported.
Russia has lost 375,270 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed on Saturday. The number, which has not been independently verified, includes 750 casualties over the past day.
Russian troops have reinstalled mines along the perimeter of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which it occupies in the occupied Zaporizhzhia oblast, the International Atomic Energy Agency has said.
The wife of a Russian soldier delivered an emotional appeal for his return from Ukraine on Saturday at the election headquarters of Putin – it was a defiant gesture by Maria Andreyeva in a country where open criticism of the war is banned.
Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the Ukrainian presidency, has referenced a quote from Winston Churchill in an interview with Le Figaro. Discussing the war in Ukraine, he said: “Give us the tools and we will finish the job.”
Romanian protesters have ended their blockade at the Porubne-Siret crossing along the Romanian-Ukrainian border the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the border guard service. Romanian farmers and truck drivers had been protesting against high business costs.
Russian forces launched seven Shahed-136/131 attack drones against Ukraine, four of which were shot down by Ukraine’s air defences, according to an update from the general staff.
Russia has accused Ukraine of being behind a drone strike that sparked a huge inferno at an oil depot in western Russia on Friday, the latest in a series of escalating cross-border attacks. Russian officials and news reports said four oil reservoirs with a total capacity of 6,000 cubic metres (1.6m gallons) were set on fire at the oil refinery after the drone reached Klintsy, a city of 70,000 people located about 60km (40 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
