Closing summary
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told the new chief of Ukraine’s state guard service to clear its ranks of people discrediting it after two of its officers were accused of plotting to assassinate senior officials. Introducing Col Oleksiy Morozov to the staff on Monday, Zelenskiy said his main objective was to ensure that only those who see their future tied with Ukraine join the agency.
Discussions between Russia and North Korea about what Pyongyang gets in return for weapons supplies to Moscow could relate to North Korea’s nuclear long-range missile development, the US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, said.
The decreasing popularity of Germany’s Social Democratic party (SDP), led by chancellor Olaf Scholz, is linked to some voters’ opposition to the party’s support for Ukraine, Scholz was quoted as saying in an interview.
A Hungarian legal team in Brussels is looking for ways of challenging an EU decision to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets by circumventing Budapest’s opposition, the country’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said. Earlier, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the 27-strong bloc had found a way to use the proceeds from frozen Russian assets to buy arms for Ukraine despite hold-ups from Hungary. Borrell said that Kyiv would get the first tranche of money from revenues from Russia’s frozen assets next week, following “a legal procedure to avoid any kind of blockage”.
The EU approved new sanctions on Russia over its war on Ukraine, targeting Moscow’s shadow fleet of tankers moving liquefied natural gas through Europe, as well as several companies.
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Russia could be discussing help for North Korea missile development, US deputy secretary of state says
Discussions between Russia and North Korea about what Pyongyang gets in return for weapons supplies to Moscow could relate to North Korea’s nuclear long-range missile development, the US deputy secretary of state, Kurt Campbell, has said.
Reuters has quoted Campbell making the comments at an event hosted by
the council on foreign relations thinktank.
He was also quoted as saying that China is probably worried that Pyongyang will be encouraged by Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea last week to take “provocative” steps that could lead to a crisis in Northeast Asia.
Putin and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, signed a defence pact last week that requires their countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked, something the US has expressed concern over. It was the Russian president’s first visit to North Korea since 2000.
The pact magnified western concerns about potential Russian aid for North Korea’s missile or nuclear programmes. Neither Russia nor North Korea published the text of the security agreement. It was not immediately clear what form that support might take, and few details of the agreement were made public.
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