Ukraine-Russia live: Putin’s forces hit by drone attack in Crimea as South Korea may now send arms to Kyiv
Ukrainian intelligence suggests that 10,000 North Korea soldiers were being prepared to join Russian forces
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Russian air defences destroyed 14 Ukrainian air drones overnight, including 10 drones over the Crimean Peninsula, the defence ministry said on Wednesday as Vladimir Putin welcomed two dozen world leaders to Kazan for the Brics summit.
Russia said it also destroyed four unmanned boats in the Black Sea heading towards the Peninsula.
The development comes amid a row over the deployment of North Korean troops in Ukraine to help Russia’s war efforts.
South Korea on Tuesday said Seoul was weighing the possibility of directly supplying weapons to Ukraine.
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 have denied the allegations, calling them “fake news”.
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.
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
In pics: Vladimir Putin meets world leaders during Brics summit in Kazan
Ukraine downs 57 Russian drones over 12 regions, air force says
Ukraine‘s air defence shot down 57 Russian drones over 12 regions across the country, the air force said on Wednesday.
The air force said the Russian forces launched 81 drones and attacked the southern region of Odesa with a missile.
India’s Modi calls for peace in Ukraine during meeting with Putin
India’s Narendra Modi told Russian president Vladimir Putin on the eve of the Brics summit that he wanted peace in Ukraine and that New Delhi was ready to help achieve a truce to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two.
Mr Putin, who ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, wants the Brics summit to showcase the rising clout of the non-Western world after the US and its European and Asian allies tried to isolate Russia over the war
.Mr Putin thanked the Indian prime minister for accepting the invitation to visit Kazan, a city on the banks of the Volga, and said Russia and India shared a “privileged strategic partnership”.
The Indian prime minister thanked Mr Putin for his “strong friendship”, praised growing cooperation and the evolution of Brics but also said that India felt the conflict in Ukraine should be ended peacefully.
“We have been in constant touch on the subject of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” Mr Modi said. “We believe that problems should be resolved only through peaceful means.”
Pyongyang and Moscow deny North Korea troop deployment
North Korea and Russia have denied the North Korean troop deployment as well as the purported weapons transfer.
At a UN Security Council meeting, Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia dismissed the South Korean assertion as well as Western allegations of Iran supplying Russia with missiles and China providing arms components.
He accused the West of “circulating scaremongering with Iranian, Chinese and Korean bogeymen, each one of which is more absurd than the one before”.
At a separate UN committee meeting, a North Korean diplomat said his delegation feels no need to comment on the troop dispatch, calling it “groundless, stereotype rumors aimed at smearing the image” of the North and undermining the legitimate cooperation between two sovereign states.
The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called South Korean and Ukraine governments “lunatics” as she slammed them for making “reckless remarks against nuclear weapons states”.
North Korea dismisses reports of troops in Ukraine as ‘groundless rumors’
North Korea has claimed reports it has sent soldiers to fight with Russia against Ukraine are “groundless rumors,” the South Korean Yonhap news agency has reported, citing a North Korean representative to the United Nations.
The statement is Pyongyang’s first public reaction to multiple reports of such a deployment from Kyiv and Seoul.
The representative said during a session of the U.N. General Assembly First Committee on disarmament and international security: “As for the so-called military cooperation with Russia, my delegation does not feel any need for comment on such groundless stereotyped rumors aimed at smearing the image of the DPRK and undermining the legitimate, friendly and cooperative relations between two sovereign states.”
Russia detains over a dozen North Korean soldiers for leaving positions - report
Russian authorities have reportedly detained at least 18 North Korean soldiers for allegedly abandoning their positions in Kursk Oblast.
Ukraine and South Korea have accused North Korea of sending thousands of soldiers to help in Russia’s war efforts on the frontline.
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.
Eighteen of the deployed soldiers deserted their positions in Russian regions near the Ukrainian border, Ukraine-based outlet Hromadske reported, citing a military intelligence source.
The North Korean soldiers were left in a forest in Kursk Oblast without food and instructions for several days following their training with the Russian troops on 14 October, according to the report.
The soldiers abandoned their posts and were initially declared missing before they were detained by Russian authorities roughly 60km from their original position, Hromadske reported.
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.
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