The Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya has slammed the UN secretary general, António Guterres, for meeting Vladimir Putin. “It was the third year of the war, and the UN secretary general was shaking hands with a murderer,” Navalnaya said on X, posting a photo of Putin greeting Guterres. Navalnaya is the widow of Alexei Navalny, the Russian opposition figurehead who died as a Russian political prisoner in February.
It was the third year of the war, and the UN Secretary-General was shaking hands with a murderer pic.twitter.com/BpjsThSKsw
— Yulia Navalnaya (@yulia_navalnaya) October 24, 2024
Guterres told the Russian president on Thursday that “the Russian invasion of Ukraine was in violation of the United Nations charter and international law” a readout from the UN chief’s spokesperson said after their meeting on the sidelines of the Brics summit in Kazan, Russia. Guterres called on Thursday for a “just peace” in Ukraine.
Moscow was ready to consider any options to end the conflict in Ukraine but only proceeding from “reality on the ground”, and was “not ready for anything else”, Putin said on Thursday. He accused the west of using Ukraine to “create critical threats to Russia’s security”.
Putin made no denial of North Korean troops being brought into the war as he spoke on Thursday about defence ties with Kim Jong-un’s regime, writes Patrick Wintour, the Guardian’s diplomatic editor. Asked by a reporter about satellite imagery showing North Korean troop movements, Putin said: “Images are a serious thing. If there are images, then they reflect something.” The US and South Korea have said North Korean troops have reached Ukraine, while Ukraine’s military intelligence service said on Thursday that the first of them had been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region which has been counter-invaded by the Ukrainians.
Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine killed at least six people and wounded 10 on Thursday, regional authorities said. A thermobaric bomb hit the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, wounding 10 people, said the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov. One woman died later in hospital. “The enemy struck near a shop and the town market,” Syniehubov said. Russian shelling later in the day killed three people around Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, said the governor, Vadym Filashkin, adding later that a Russian strike on a branch of the Nova Poshta delivery service killed two people in Oleksiyevo-Druzhkiva, near the frontline towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostyantynivka.
Russian media and war bloggers reported on Thursday that Russian forces had advanced into the coal mining town of Selydove, about 20km (12 miles) south-east of Pokrovsk. Ukraine’s military general staff said that currently the most intense Russian assaults along the frontline were taking place on the Pokrovsk front, including near Selydove.
The international criminal court reported Mongolia to its oversight organisation on Thursday for failing to arrest Vladimir Putin when he visited in September. The ICC has an arrest warrant out for Putin related to the Ukraine war, but instead of arresting the Russian ruler as required by its membership of the ICC, Mongolia rolled out the red carpet. “In view of the seriousness of Mongolia’s failure to cooperate with the court, the chamber deemed it necessary to refer the matter to the assembly of states parties,” the court said, referring to its oversight body that meets in December in The Hague. The organisation, made up of all 124 of the court’s member states, can “take any measure it deems appropriate”, according to the ICC.
A father and son from Ukraine have been sentenced to 20 years’ jail each in Belarus after being convicted of preparing terrorist acts. Serhiy Kabarchuk and his son Pavlo were arrested in February for allegedly assembling a store of weapons and explosives. State television later ran footage in which the Kabarchuks said they were acting under the direction of Ukraine’s SBU security service. Many observers claim such televised confessions in the authoritarian country are made under duress.
Ukraine said on Thursday it had detained six people including three army recruitment officials in Kyiv as part of a probe into “illegal evasion of mobilisation by persons liable for military service”. The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) added: “More than $1.2 million and 45,000 euros in cash were discovered and seized. In addition, 11 luxury cars worth over $100,000 each were seized.” The SBI alleged a civilian acted as a liaison between the recruitment officials and people seeking to avoid being drafted. The price to be removed from the call-up list ranged from $2,000 to $15,000 and the scheme may have aided “thousands” to evade service. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this week ordered the scrapping of the central body that issues medical disability certificates, and Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, resigned after security services uncovered a large-scale scheme that provided draft exemptions for government officials.
Russian lawmakers voted on Thursday for a budget that will see defence spending surge by almost 30% next year as the Kremlin diverts huge resources to its Ukraine offensive. Only one lawmaker in the lower house voted against. The bill will go through a second reading on 14 November.
