Ukraine-Russia latest: North Korea soldiers in Russia targeted by Ukrainian fire for first time, Kyiv says
US says North Korea has deployed 10,000 troops in Russia, with more than half of them in the Kursk region
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Your support makes all the difference.North Korean troops have been hit by Ukraine’s army for the first time since they entered the war on Russia’s side, Kyiv has said.
Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine’s national security council, reported that the incident took place in Russia’s western Kursk region. Ukrainian forces have held parts of this area since their unexpected cross-border operation in August.
“The initial North Korean troops have already encountered fire in the Kursk region,” Kovalenko said, though he did not provide additional details.
His remarks are likely to heighten concerns that North Korea’s involvement could draw other nations into the conflict, which has already become Europe’s largest war since 1945.
Pyongyang has vowed to back Russia until it achieves victory over Ukraine. “Our traditional, historically friendly relations, which have traveled the tested path of history, today ... are rising to a new level of relations of invincible military comradeship,” the North’s foreign minister Choe Son Hui said during her trip to Moscow last week.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken confirmed there are 10,000 North Koreans already in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region.
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Footage of Russian drone flying over Kyiv
A Kyiv official has shown footage of a Russian drone flying over residential buildings during Russia’s drone attack on the Ukrainian capital in the early hours of Saturday.
“A Russian drone flying over Kyiv residential buildings this morning. They fly very low, so the danger for civilians is higher,” Anton Gerashchenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s internal affairs minister, wrote on X.
Russian forces claim capture of two villages in eastern Ukraine
The Russian Defence Ministry claimed to have captured the villages of Kurakhove and Kvartsytne on Saturday.
It would be a significant step for Russian forces as they continue to advance on eastern territory in Ukraine. Russian forces appear to have accelerated in their offensive on the eastern front.
Kvartsytne was formerly called Pershotravneve, until it was renamed in September 2024 by the Ukrainian parliament.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has made no secret of his desire to control the entire Donbas region.
As the main point of assault towards Pokrovsk stalled, the Russian military widened across the eastern front, including towards Kurakove to the south.
Kim Jong Un ‘taking a big gamble’, analyst says
Large North Korean troop casualties in Ukraine or Russia would be a major political blow for the country’s 40-year-old ruler, Kim Jong Un.
But experts say Mr Kim may see this as a way to get much needed foreign currency and security support from Russia in return for joining the war.
“Kim Jong Un is taking a big gamble. If there are no large casualty numbers, he will get what he wants to some extent. But things will change a lot if many of his soldiers die in battle,” Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean army first lieutenant who leads the World Institute for North Korean Studies, told the Associated Press.
Russia’s second drone attack on Kyiv in as many nights damages buildings, Ukraine says
A Russian air attack on Kyiv damaged buildings, roads and several power lines in the city, the capital’s military administration said early on Sunday, after the military said air defences were trying to repel a drone attack.
There were no injuries in the attack, which came in waves and approached the city from different directions, Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Popko said there was no fire, amending the administration’s earlier account that emergency crews had been dispatched to the site of a fire in the Shevchenkivskyi district that it said had been caused by the attack.
It was Russia’s second drone attack on Kyiv in as many nights. According to preliminary information, all of the attack drones were destroyed, Popko added. It was not immediately clear how many drones were launched at Kyiv.
Falling drone debris damaged an entrance and windows of at least five buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi and Holosiivskyi districts, including a hostel and windows in an office building, Popko said.
The military posted several photos on Telegram showing a blown-out entrance to a building, damaged windows in another and power lines lying on the road.
Reuters witnesses reported hearing blasts and seeing plumes of smoke rising from above residential buildings.
Shevchenkivskyi district near Kyiv’s centre is a busy area with a cluster of universities, restaurants and tourist attractions. Holosiivskyi district is home to a large national park. Both districts lie on the western bank of the Dnipro River.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and the vast majority of the eastern half of Ukraine were intermittently under air raid alerts for most of the night, according to alerts issued on social media by the Ukrainian military.
Russia’s second drone attack on Kyiv in as many nights damages buildings, Ukraine says
A Russian air attack on Kyiv damaged buildings, roads and several power lines in the city, the capital's military administration said early on Sunday, after the military said air defences were trying to repel a drone attack.
There were no injuries in the attack, which came in waves and approached the city from different directions, Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Popko said there was no fire, amending the administration's earlier account that emergency crews had been dispatched to the site of a fire in the Shevchenkivskyi district that it said had been caused by the attack.
It was Russia's second drone attack on Kyiv in as many nights. According to preliminary information, all of the attack drones were destroyed, Popko added. It was not immediately clear how many drones were launched at Kyiv.
Falling drone debris damaged an entrance and windows of at least five buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi and Holosiivskyi districts, including a hostel and windows in an office building, Popko said.
The military posted several photos on Telegram showing a blown-out entrance to a building, damaged windows in another and power lines lying on the road.
Reuters witnesses reported hearing blasts and seeing plumes of smoke rising from above residential buildings.
Shevchenkivskyi district near Kyiv's centre is a busy area with a cluster of universities, restaurants and tourist attractions. Holosiivskyi district is home to a large national park. Both districts lie on the western bank of the Dnipro River.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and the vast majority of the eastern half of Ukraine were intermittently under air raid alerts for most of the night, according to alerts issued on social media by the Ukrainian military.
Moldova holds presidential runoff election amid claims of Russian meddling
Moldovans vote on Sunday in a presidential runoff that has been overshadowed by election meddling allegations and could see Moscow gain more influence in a diplomatic battleground between Russia and the European Union.
Pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu, who has accelerated the southeast European nation’s push to leave Moscow’s orbit and join the EU, faces Alexandr Stoianoglo, an ex-prosecutor general backed by the pro-Russian Socialist Party.
The fortunes of Ms Sandu, who set Moldova on the long path of EU accession talks in June, will be closely followed in Brussels a week after Georgia, another ex-Soviet state hoping to join, re-elected a ruling party seen as increasingly pro-Russian.
Mr Stoianoglo says that as president he too would back EU integration but also develop ties with Russia in the national interest. He has vowed to try to revive cheap Russian gas supplies and said he would meet with president Vladimir Putin if Moldovans wanted it.
The outcome of the vote is likely to set the tone for next summer’s parliamentary elections where Sandu’s ruling party is expected to struggle to retain its majority and which will determine the stripe of the future government.
In pictures: Kyiv reels from drone strike
Former North Korean soldiers on why troops will volunteer to fight in Ukraine
The thousands of young soldiers North Korea has sent to Russia, reportedly to help fight against Ukraine, are mostly elite special forces, but that hasn’t stopped speculation they’ll be slaughtered because they have no combat experience, no familiarity with the terrain and will likely be dropped onto the most ferocious battlefields.
That may be true, and soon. Observers say the troops are already arriving at the front. From the North Korean perspective, however, these soldiers might not be as miserable as outsiders think.
They may, in fact, view their Russian tour with pride and as a rare chance to make good money, see a foreign country for the first time, and win preferred treatment for their families back home, according to former North Korean soldiers.
Read the full report here.
Former North Korean soldiers on why troops will volunteer to fight in Ukraine
Thousands of young North Korean elite troops sent to Russia lack combat experience and local knowledge
US citizen who allegedly spied for Russia from Ukraine appears in Moscow
A US citizen who was spirited out of eastern Ukraine by Russian special forces after helping the Kremlin target Ukrainian troops said in Moscow on Saturday he had asked for Russian citizenship.
“My name is Daniel Martindale,” he told a press conference, state media reported.
“Here is my passport. It went through the war with me, you can see in what condition it is,” he said in English, holding up what appeared to be a well-used US passport and birth certificate.
He said he was under no duress, wanted to receive Russian citizenship and predicted Russia would win the war in Ukraine.
The US embassy in Moscow did not immediately comment.
Mr Martindale, who said he had worked as a missionary, said he entered Ukraine from Poland in early 2022, just days before president Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine.
“I’ve wanted to go to Russia for a long time, I realized that this is the moment I’ve been waiting for,” he was quoted as saying.
An unidentified Russian intelligence source quoted by the RIA state news agency said Mr Martindale had supplied information to Russian forces about the location of key Ukrainian infrastructure for two years.
North Korean troops armed with infantry weapons, intelligence report says
Russia has armed North Korean troops deployed on the frontlines with infantry weapons, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) said.
Soldiers have been armed with 60-mm mortars, AK-12 rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, Feniks anti-tank guided missiles, and hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, it said.
The troops have also reportedly received night vision devices, thermal imagers, collimator sights, and binoculars.
The agency reported that Russia has deployed over 7,000 North Korean troops from Primorsky Krai to the Ukrainian border.
This number closely matches Washington’s recent announcement. US secretary of state Antony Blinken stated earlier this week that around 8,000 North Korean troops are stationed in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine initiated a cross-border incursion in August and continues to hold substantial territory.
According to HUR, North Korea has sent nearly 12,000 troops to Russia, including 500 officers and three generals. The soldiers are reportedly undergoing training at five military camps in Russia’s Far East.
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