Ukraine-Russia live: South Korea may supply arms to Kyiv after reports North Korean troops sent to Russia
Ukrainian intelligence suggests that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join Russian forces
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South Korea is weighing the possibility of directly supplying weapons to Ukraine as mounting evidence suggests that North Korean soldiers are preparing to assist Russia in its war.
South Korea’s spy agency recently revealed that North Korea had deployed 1,500 soldiers to Russia’s far east for training, with plans to send a total of 12,000 troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Both North Korea and Russia has denied the allegations, calling them “fake news”.
A senior official from president Yoon Suk Yeol’s office said on Tuesday that Seoul could provide defensive—and potentially offensive—arms to Ukraine, depending on how the situation unfolds. This marks South Korea’s most significant move toward arming Ukraine, indicating a major policy shift as regional tensions rise.
Meanwhile, British prime minister Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of “harming millions of vulnerable people” as new British intelligence suggests ships carrying food aid have been caught up in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ports.
Mr Putin is hosting more than two dozen world leaders in Kazan this week for the Brics summit, which the Kremlin hopes to turn into a rallying point for defying Western influence in global affairs.
Putin ‘harming millions’, Starmer claims amid Russian attacks on Black Sea ports
South Korea warns it could arm Ukraine amid fears of Putin Kim Jong Un weapon swap
Who is going to Putin-hosted Brics summit in Russia – and why has Brazil’s Lula dropped out?
North Korean troops in Ukraine: Everything we know about Kim Jong-un’s army joining Russian invasion
Ukraine's potato harvest falls in 2024, driving up inflation
Poor weather conditions for potato cultivation in Ukraine this year have led to an 18% drop in the harvest, causing a sharp jump in prices, higher imports and accelerated inflation, officials and analysts say.
Often dubbed ‘second bread’, potatoes are a staple of the Ukrainian diet, with average consumption at about 130 kg per person a year, well above average bread consumption of up to 20 kg a year.
The agriculture ministry forecasts that this year’s potato harvest could fall to 17.5 million metric tons versus 21.3 million in 2023.
“This is the result of bad weather conditions, as the sown area remained unchanged at 1.2 million hectares,” Taras Vysotskiy, the first deputy minister, told Reuters.
Russia ‘downs 14 Ukrainian drones’
Russia’s defence units destroyed 14 Ukrainian air drones overnight, including 10 drones over the Crimean Peninsula and four unmanned boats in the Black Sea heading towards the Peninsula, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning.
Russian war plummeting Ukraine’s population, says UN
Ukraine’s population has declined by around eight million people since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the UN Population Fund (Unfpa).
“Overall, Ukraine’s population has declined by an estimated 10 million since 2014 and by an estimated eight million since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022,” Unfpa’s regional director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Florence Bauer said yesterday.
Ukraine is already facing significant demographic challenges and has seen its birth rate plummet to one child per woman, the lowest in Europe, Ms Bauer said.U
kraine’s population stood at around 45 million in 2014, when Russia first invaded the country and occupied Crimea, the agency said.
Putin ‘harming millions’, Starmer claims amid Russian attacks on Black Sea ports
Sir Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of “harming millions of vulnerable people” as new British intelligence suggests ships carrying food aid have been caught up in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s ports.
Among the merchant ships hit by Russian missiles since the start of October was one bound for Palestine with UN food aid, newly released British intelligence suggests.
The strikes show Mr Putin is willing to “gamble on global food security”, the prime minister said, as others hit in the crossfire were carrying grain heading for the global south.
Attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have ramped up as the harvest season begins in the war-torn nation, which remains a major agricultural producer key to food security in Africa.
Sir Keir said: “Russia’s indiscriminate strikes on ports in the Black Sea underscore that Putin is willing to gamble on global food security in his attempts to force Ukraine into submission.
More here.
Putin ‘harming millions’, Starmer claims amid Russian attacks on Black Sea ports
Attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have ramped up as the harvest season begins in the war-torn nation.
North Korean troops in Ukraine are a ‘shocking’ and ‘desperate’ development
North Korean troops supporting Russia on the ground in Ukraine is a “shocking” and “desperate” new development in the war, Defence Secretary John Healey has said.
Mr Healey gave a statement to the Commons where he updated MPs as to a £2.26 billion loan to help Ukraine that will be funded by profits on frozen Russian assets.
Mr Healey told MPs: “North Korean soldiers supporting Russia’s war of aggression on European soil, it is as shocking as it is desperate.
“North Korea already sends significant munitions and arms to Russia in direct violation of multiple UN resolutions.
“This developing military co-operation between Russia and the DPRK has serious security implications for Europe and for the Indo-Pacific.
“It represents a wider, growing alliance of aggression which Nato and the G7 nations must confront.
“Despite this dangerous development, Ukraine remains determined to fight on their front line in the east and in the territory in Kursk.”
He added: “This conflict is now at a really critical moment, and that is why the UK continues to step up support for Ukraine.
“Ukrainians are fighting to regain their sovereign territory, but they are also fighting to protect the peace, the democracy and the security for the rest of us in Europe.”
Putin hosts 36 global leaders at Brics summit
China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and other world leaders arrived yesterday in the Russian city of Kazan for a summit of the Brics bloc of developing economies that the Kremlin hopes to turn into a rallying point for defying Western influence in global affairs.
For Russian president Vladimir Putin, the three-day meeting also offers a powerful way to demonstrate the failure of US-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.
Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov called it “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia, with 36 countries attending and more than 20 of them represented by heads of state.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded rapidly to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and a few others have expressed interest in joining.
Observers see the Brics summit as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to showcase support from the Global South amid spiraling tensions with the West while expanding economic and financial ties.
UK to use frozen Russian assets for £2.26bn loan to support Ukraine
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.
Rachel Hagan reports.
UK to use frozen Russian assets for £2.26 billion loan to support Ukraine war effort
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
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.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's posthumous memoir is a testament to resilience
In a memoir released eight months after he died in prison, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny never loses faith that his cause is worth suffering for while also acknowledging he wished he could have written a very different book.
“There is a mishmash of bits and pieces, a traditional narrative followed by a prison diary,” Navalny writes in “Patriot,” which was published Tuesday, and is, indeed, a traditional narrative followed by a prison diary.“
I so much do not want my book to be yet another prison diary. Personally I find them interesting to read, but as a genre — enough is surely enough.”
The final 200 pages of Navalny’s 479-page book do, in some ways, have the characteristics of other prison diaries or of such classic Russian literature as Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.”
He tracks the boredom, isolation, exhaustion, suffering and absurdity of prison life, while working in asides about everything from 19th century French literature to Billie Eilish.
But “Patriot” also reads as a testament to a famed dissident’s extraordinary battle against despair as the Russian authorities gradually increase their crackdown against him, and even shares advice on how to confront the worst and still not lose hope.
“The important thing is not to torment yourself with anger, hatred, fantasies of revenge, but to move instantly to acceptance. That can be hard,” he writes.
“The process going on in your head is by no means straightforward, but if you find yourself in a bad situation, you should try this. It works, as long as you think everything through seriously.”
In recent years, Navalny had become an international symbol of resistance. A lawyer by training, he started out as an anti-corruption campaigner, but soon turned into a politician with aspirations for public office and eventually became the main challenger to Russia’s longtime president, Vladimir Putin.Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, oversaw the book’s completion.
In a promotional interview for “Patriot,” she told the BBC that she would run for president if she ever returned to Russia - an unlikely move with Putin in power, Navalnaya acknowledged. She has been arrested in absentia in Russia on charges of involvement with an extremist group.
Putin “needs to be in a Russian prison, to feel everything what not just my husband, but all the prisoners in Russia” feel, Navalnaya said during an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes.”
Russia summons German ambassador over NATO regional command centre
Russia summoned the German ambassador over the establishment of a regional headquarters of the NATO maritime command in the city of Rostock, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
“Washington, Brussels and Berlin must be aware that the expansion of NATO’s military infrastructure into the territory of the former GDR (German Democratic Republic) will have the most negative consequences and will not go without a corresponding response from the Russian side,” the ministry said in the statement.
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