Closing summary
It’s 10pm in Kyiv and 11pm in Moscow. Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Vladimir Putin warned that Russia would carry out more tests of its new Oreshnik missile in combat and had a stock ready for use, a day after firing the experimental, nuclear-capable ballistic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. The Russian leader described the missile’s first use as a successful test, and said more would follow.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged world leaders to “respond firmly and decisively” after Russia’s ballistic missile strike on Thursday. The Ukrainian president said his country was working on developing new types of air defence to counter “new risks” following Russia’s deployment of a new ballistic missile.
Russia has sent air defence missiles and other military technology to North Korea in return for the deployment of troops from the North to support its war in Ukraine, intelligence officials in South Korea have said. North Korea’s dispatch of troops to fight against Ukraine and weapons from its vast stockpiles has been repaid with Russian oil and advanced military technology, experts believe.
The Kremlin said Thursday’s strike on Ukraine using a newly developed hypersonic ballistic missile was designed to warn the west that Moscow will respond to moves by the US and the UK to let Kyiv strike Russia with their missiles. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, was speaking a day after Putin said Moscow had fired the new missile – the Oreshnik or ‘hazel tree’- at a Ukrainian military facility.
Ukraine’s parliament cancelled Friday’s session, lawmakers said, citing the risk of a Russian missile attack on the district of Kyiv where government buildings are located. “The hour of questions to the government has been cancelled,” Yevgenia Kravchuk, an MP from the ruling party told Agence France-Presse (AFP). Kravchuk said: “There are signals of an increased risk of attacks on the government district in the coming days.”
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said Russia’s threat of more strikes with new weapons should be taken seriously, warning “there will be consequences”. Russia “bases its policy and its place in the world on military force” and cherishes its status as “one of the most powerful militaries in the world, with some of the most modern and destructive weapons,” he added.
The UK home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said that “we will continue” to see “aggressive language” from Putin after the Russian leader threatened to strike the UK. Cooper told Sky News that there has been an “aggressive, blustering tone” from Putin throughout the conflict, which she called “completely unacceptable”. Meanwhile, the UK’s foreign secretary, David Lammy, vowed to continue to “do everything that is necessary” to help Ukraine combat Russia.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, has said supporting Ukraine’s self-defence is the “best protection” for peace in Europe. Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who held an hour-long call with Putin last week, has resisted calls to support Ukraine’s longer-range strike capabilities against Russia, after the UK and US approved Ukraine’s use of Storm Shadow missiles and similar American Atacms weapons inside Russia.
Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, said recent events show that there is a real risk of a global conflict breaking out. “The war in the east is entering a decisive phase, we feel that the unknown is approaching,” Tusk told a teachers conference.
A Russian drone attack on the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and injured 12 on Friday morning, regional authorities said. Twelve apartment buildings, five private residences, a store and three cars were damaged after three drones attacked the city at about 5am local time (3am GMT), the national police said.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of executing five Ukrainian prisoners of war during a single incident in eastern Ukraine last month. The prosecutor general’s office claimed Russian troops shot and killed five unarmed Ukrainian soldiers after capturing them during an assault on their position on 2 October on the outskirts of Vuhledar, a town in the east of the country.
A British man has pleaded guilty to an arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business and accepting pay from a foreign intelligence agency. Jake Reeves, 23, admitted aggravated arson in relation to a fire in March at an east London warehouse belonging to a man only referred to in court as Mr X. He pleaded guilty to an offence under the National Security Act 2023 of obtaining a material benefit from a foreign intelligence service.
North Korean technical advisers have arrived in the Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol wearing Russian uniforms, CNN is reporting, citing a Ukrainian security source.
The North Korean troops in Mariupol remain detached from the Russian units they are supporting, the source told the outlet.
While other foreign fighters in Russian ranks are blended into the units, the North Koreans are kept separate with their own quarters, food, music and films, they added.
North Korean troops have also been spotted in the eastern Kharkiv region, a Ukrainian military spokesperson told CNN.
Another Ukrainian military official reported that North Korean troops in Kharkiv “dividing into units, strengthening their combat units, and accumulating small numbers (of forces) on the frontline”.
