Ukraine-Russia latest: Zelensky accuses North Korea of sending troops to Russia as he seeks support from allies
Zelensky seeks ‘more sustained supplies’ for Ukrainian forces
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Volodymyr Zelensky has accused North Korea of supplying troops to Russia to aid its war in Ukraine.
The alliance between Russia and North Korea is “no longer just about transferring weapons”, the Ukrainian president said in his nightly video address. “It is actually about transfer of people.”
He sought an evolution of Ukraine’s relationship with its allies as he asked for support from Western partners and “more sustained supplies for our forces rather than a simple list of military hardware”.
He claimed that Russian forces were trying to oust Ukrainian troops from their positions in Russia’s Kursk region but Kyiv’s forces were holding strong.“Russia tried to push back our positions, but we are holding the designated lines,” the president said earlier on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Russia launched 68 drones and four missiles targeting Ukrainian territory, Ukraine’s air force said on Sunday.
Ukrainian forces hit a fuel depot supplying Russia’s army, with a fire detected at the facility which stores oil and oil products, Kyiv said.
What is the mysterious advanced Russian weapon downed by Moscow’s own forces in embarrassment for Putin?
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Mapped: Russia claims to have captured two Ukrainian villages as it advances in Donetsk
Zelensky outlines ‘victory plan’ in No 10 talks with Starmer and Nato chief
What is the mysterious advanced Russian weapon downed by Moscow’s own forces?
Last week Russia’s air force was forced to shoot down one of its newest and most advanced models of attack drone, in an incident that is being seen as one of the biggest embarrassments ever suffered by the Russian Air Force.
On 5 October, videos showed a drone flying near Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine before it was shot down by another jet briefly flying alongside it. Initial reports suggested it was either a Russian jet taken down by the Ukrainian air force or a Russian jet losing control and being shot down by Moscow.
However, the drone that fell down was no ordinary weapon. It was later identified as a stealth S-70 Okhotnik-B, also known as “Hunter”, one of Russia’s most advanced stealth drones, designed to accompany an Su-57 fighter jet.
Read more:
What is the mysterious Russian weapon downed by Moscow’s own forces in Ukraine?
Wreckage of one of Russia’s newest pieces of military hardware is now in hands of Ukrainian forces
Lukashenko says Russian nuclear shift will prompt West to 'cool down'
Changes announced by Russia to its nuclear weapons policy were long overdue and will probably "cool the ardour" of its Western enemies, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko said in an interview on Sunday.
Lukashenko, a close ally of president Vladimir Putin, said "hotheads" in the West had already heard Moscow's nuclear signals even before the Kremlin leader announced the changes last month.
Mr Putin on 25 September expanded the scenarios for Russia's potential use of nuclear weapons, including responding to a massive cross-border attack involving aircraft, missiles, or drones. He also warned that any attack on Russia involving a nuclear power would be treated as a joint assault.
"This doctrine should have been renewed long ago," said Mr Lukashenko, who agreed to host Russian tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus last year.
He told a Russian TV reporter that Western missiles would "already be bombing us, especially Russia" if the West had not paid attention to Mr Putin's earlier nuclear signals. But the change to the nuclear doctrine "probably cools their ardour", he added.
Ukraine has accused Russia of nuclear blackmail, with president Volodymyr Zelensky urging the West to ignore Mr Putin's "red lines."
Russia has warned that if Western allies allow Ukraine to launch ATACMS or Storm Shadow missiles into Russian territory, it will consider it direct involvement in the war.
Russian attacks kill two and wound 22 in Ukraine
At least two people were killed and 22 others wounded in Russian attacks across multiple regions of Ukraine over the past 24 hours, Ukrainian authorities said on Sunday.
The fatalities were reported in the Donetsk region, where the settlements of Kurakhivka and Ulakla came under heavy shelling. Eleven others were injured in the same attack, according to regional governor Vadym Filashkin.
Russian forces also targeted the Kharkiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions, damaging homes and essential infrastructure.
Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin stated on Telegram that a critical infrastructure facility, a cellular tower, and several residential areas were hit.
"A high-rise building and three private homes were damaged," he added.
One killed in Ukrainian drone strike on Russian village
One person was killed when a Ukrainian drone struck the Russian village of Ustinka in the Belgorod region close to the border with Ukraine, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement.
Russia's defence ministry earlier said its air defence units shot down 13 Ukrainian drones overnight across three regions near the border with Ukraine.
Russia says its forces take control of Mykhailivka in eastern Ukraine
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces had taken control of the settlement of Mykhailivka in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported quoting the state-run RIA Novosti news agency.
The claim has not been independently confirmed yet.
Vigil held for Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian prison
Friends, family and colleagues of Viktoriia Roshchyna, a Ukrainian journalist who died in Russian prison, gathered for a vigil this weekend in a square in Kyiv.
"Read and remember Vika," they asked, Ukrainska Pavda reported.
Roshchyna, who was covering the war as a freelance journalist for Ukrainska Pravda, disappeared in August 2023.
In May this year, Russia confirmed that she was detained. This week, her father was informed by the Russian defence ministry in a letter that she died in September, aged 27.
The document said her body would be returned in one of the swaps organised by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed on the battlefield.
Roshchyna was one of the very few people who was covering the war from a Russian-occupied territory. She provided crucial stories that weren't otherwise available, and despite the risk to her life she continued to report without a pseudonym.
She was earlier detained for 10 days, but she did not stop reporting, her colleagues said.
“Her parents used to call and tell us to stop deploying her, but we never did deploy her!” one of her former bosses told BBC News.
“All her editors tried to stop her. But it was impossible.”
Diary reveals Navalny’s final days in a Russian prison
The late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was taunted by prison guards who hid sweets in his pockets in a bid to ‘undermine’ his hunger strike, his prison diaries have revealed.
Defiant journal entries from the 47-year-old, who survived Novichok poisoning in 2020 before he was imprisoned in Russia, have laid bare his final years – including 24 days spent on hunger strike over his access to medical treatment.
He died in February inside a remote Russian penal colony north of the Arctic Circle known as Polar Wolf.
The pro-democracy activist said he hoped his memoir would be his memorial if “they do finally whack me”, in extracts published in The Times Magazine.
"Let’s face it, if a murky assassination attempt using a chemical weapon, followed by a tragic demise in prison, can’t move a book, it is hard to imagine what would," he wrote.
The harrowing account of 24 days he spent on hunger strike in 2021 revealed how guards tried to undermine his protest as he lost an average of 1kg a day.
Read more:
Navalny’s diary: Guards slipped sweets in his pocket to ‘undermine’ hunger strike
Russia’s opposition leader Alexei Navalny said he hoped his prison memoir would be his ‘memorial’ and he wanted his family to get royalties if he was ‘whacked’
Mapped: Where has Russia made advances in Donetsk?
Russia has claimed further advances in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk as fears spread Moscow could capture a key city in the area.
The Russian defence ministry has claimed Moscow’s forces have captured the settlements of Zolota Nyva and Zhelanna Pershe.
The communities have an estimated population of a few hundred residents each but they lie to the north and south of the town of Kurakhove, one of the focal points of military activity on the eastern front.
Read the full article here:
Mapped: Where has Russia made advances in Donetsk?
Russia’s ministry of defence claims it’s forces have captured two small settlements around the city of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine
Lithuanians elect new parliament amid security concerns from Russia
Lithuanians elect a new parliament on Sunday in a vote dominated by concerns over the cost of living and potential threats from neighbouring Russia, with the opposition Social Democrats tipped to emerge as the largest party but well short of a majority.
The outgoing centre-right coalition of Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte has seen its popularity eroded by high inflation that topped 20% two years ago, by deteriorating public services and a widening gap between rich and poor.
Results are expected after midnight local time.
African woman promised a life in Europe and duped into building Russia’s drone army
Social media ads promise young African women a free plane ticket, money and a faraway adventure in Europe. Just complete a computer game and a 100-word Russian vocabulary test.
But instead of a work-study program in fields like hospitality and catering, some of them learned only after arriving on the steppes of Russia’s 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 The Associated Press, some of the women 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.
Read the full article here:
African woman promised a life in Europe and duped into building Russia’s drone army
Tourism, paintball games and a pitch on TikTok - How Russia recruits women from Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Nigeria
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