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Ukraine has slammed UN secretary general Antonio Guterres for what it said was his acceptance of an invitation from “war criminal” Vladimir Putin to the Russia-hosted Brics summit this week.
“The UN secretary general declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland,” the ministry said. “He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation,” the ministry said.
The UN has neither confirmed nor denied Mr Guterres attendance at the Russian summit, and said it would release details of his schedule in due course. The Kazan summit begins later today.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said a senior Russian air force commander had been beaten to death with a hammer inside Russia.
Ukraine said Col Dmitry Golenkov was behind one of the most lethal airstrikes on Ukraine, one which targeted a shopping centre with a rocket.
And earlier South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to Seoul, asking the Kremlin for the “immediate withdrawal” of North Korean troops which it says are about to be deployed to fight in Ukraine.
North Korean troops in Ukraine: Everything we know about Kim Jong-un’s army joining Russian invasion
UK announces £2.26 billion loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian asset funds
David Cameron says India has ‘credibility’ to mediate in Ukraine war but must rein in Putin
Who is going to Putin-hosted Brics summit in Russia – and why has Brazil’s Lula dropped out?
Ukraine destroys 42 Russian drones in overnight attack
Ukrainian air defences destroyed 42 out of 60 drones launched by Russia during an overnight strike, Kyiv’s Air Force said this morning.
The drones were downed over parts of central, southern and eastern Ukraine, it said.
Russia’s overnight drone attack killed three civilians, including a child, in a residential area in eastern Ukraine’s Sumy region, the regional governor said.
“Three people, including a child, died as a result of a nighttime attack by enemy drones on residential buildings,” Ihor Kalchenko, the governor, said.
In pics: Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin in Kyiv
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit yesterday, hours after a Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital. Mr Austin said his fourth visit shows “that the United States, alongside the international community, continues to stand by Ukraine.”
“We should all understand that Putin’s assault is a warning. It is a sneak preview of a world built by tyrants and thugs; a chaotic, violent world carved into spheres of influence,” he said in a speech.
Ukraine is having difficulty holding back a ferocious Russian campaign along the eastern front that is gradually compelling Kyiv’s forces to give up a series of towns, villages and hamlets.
South Korea vows countermeasures over North Korean troops in Russia
South Korea will gradually take countermeasures in line with the level of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told a briefing today.
His comments came as South Korea’s presidential office urged Pyongyang to immediately withdraw North Korean troops that Seoul says have been dispatched to Russia for the war with Ukraine.
Mr Kim made the comments in a televised briefing after a meeting hosted by National Security Adviser Shin Won-sik on the dispatch of North Koreans troops earlier today.
Mr Kim accused Pyongyang of acting like a “criminal organisation” by sending young North Koreans to fight in Russia and vowed to cooperate with allies in ensuring countermeasures against North Korea-Russia military cooperation.
It remained a possibility that South Korea could supply offensive weapons to Ukraine, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing the presidential office.
UK announces £2.26bn loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian asset funds
The UK is using profits on frozen Russian assets to loan £2.26bn to Ukraine to aid with its fight against Russia’s invasion, it has been announced.
The funds represent the UK’s share of a $50bn (£38.39bn) loan package agreed upon by the G7 nations, financed through interest generated from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets.
The money could be used to fund air defence, artillery or other military equipment and comes on top of the UK’s existing £3bn-a-year support for Ukraine.
UK announces £2.26 billion loan for Ukraine using frozen Russian asset funds
The funds represent the UK’s share of a $50 billion (£38.39 billion) loan package agreed upon by the G7 nations, financed through interest generated from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets
Ukraine drones target Russian alcohol plants, says official
Overnight drone attacks by Ukraine caused an explosion and a fire at an ethanol manufacturing plant and damaged two other alcohol producing enterprises in Russia, Russian officials said this morning.
A blast shook the Biokhim biochemical plant in Russia’s Tambov region, sparking a short-lived fire, Tambov governor Maxim Yegorov said. “According to preliminary information, there are no casualties,” Yegorov said.
Biokhim in the Tambov region, some 450km (280 miles) southeast of Moscow, is one of Russia’s oldest manufacturers of “products of strategic importance for the state”, chiefly ethanol, according to the company’s website.
The governor of the Tula region, which borders Moscow to its north, said that a Ukraine drone attack damaged two distilleries in the town of Yefremov and the village of Luzhkovskyi this morning.
There were no injuries, Tula governor Dmitry Miliayev said, adding the situation was “under control”. It was not immediately clear how big the attacks were and Miliayev did not give any further details.
Child among three killed in Russia’s overnight attack on Sumy
Russia’s overnight drone attack killed three civilians, including a child, in a residential area in eastern Ukraine’s Sumy region, the regional governor said.
“Three people, including a child, died as a result of a nighttime attack by enemy drones on residential buildings,” Ihor Kalchenko, the governor, said.
Russia says it downs 18 Ukrainian drones overnight
Russia’s air defence units destroyed 18 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said today.
Of these, 11 drones were downed over the territory of the Bryansk region, three over the Belgorod region, and the rest over the Kursk, Tula and Oryol regions, the ministry said.
South Korea calls for immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops in Russia
South Korea on Monday demanded the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia as it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.
South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia earlier this month to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.
South Korea calls for immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops in Russia
South Korea has summoned the Russian ambassador to demand the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia
North Korean troops in Ukraine: Everything we know about Kim Jong-un’s army joining Russian invasion
The US and its allies have raised the alarm after Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that North Korea was sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia in its war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president claimed last week, without providing any details, that his government had intelligence that nearly 10,000 soldiers from North Korea were being prepared to join the Russian forces fighting in his country.
“They are preparing on their land 10,000 soldiers but they didn’t move them already to Ukraine or to Russia,” he told reporters at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.
Everything we know about North Korean troops joining Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelensky claims North Korea is preparing to send 10,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian military, calling it the ‘first step to a world war’
Tech firms remove social media posts from a Russian drone factory after an AP investigation
Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media posts from a industrial plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
Accounts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were taken down following an investigation by The Associated Press published Oct. 10 that detailed working conditions in the drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under U.S. and British sanctions.
Videos and other posts on the social media platforms promised the young women, who are largely from Africa, a free plane ticket to Russia and a salary of more than $500 a month following their recruitment via the program called “Alabuga Start.”
But instead of a work-study program in areas like hospitality and catering, some of them said they learned only arriving in the Tatarstan region that they would be toiling in a factory to make weapons of war, assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.
In interviews with AP, some of the women who worked in the complex complained of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages and areas of study, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching. AP did not identify them by name or nationality out of concern for their safety.
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