The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, inspected Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers and hypersonic “Kinzhal” missiles on Saturday, accompanied by Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu in Knevichi, about 30 miles (50km) from the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok. Shoigu saluted Kim and they discussed practical issues in stepping up military cooperation.
North Korea may be able to boost Russia’s supply of artillery munitions for the war in Ukraine, but that is not likely to make a big difference, the top American military officer said as he arrived in Norway for Nato meetings. The head of the US military, Gen Mark Milley, said the recent meeting in Russia between Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin will probably lead North Korea to provide Soviet-era 152mm artillery rounds to Moscow. But he said it was not yet clear how many or how soon, AP reported.
Russia on Saturday denied a Ukrainian claim to have recaptured the devastated eastern village of Andriivka, a stepping stone on the way to the city of Bakhmut. “The enemy … unsuccessfully trying to oust Russian troops from the population centres of Klishchiivka and Andriivka,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily briefing.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has warned there will be no swift end to the Ukraine war, in an interview published Sunday, as Kyiv pushes on with its counteroffensive against Russia. “Most wars last longer than expected when they first begin,” Stoltenberg said in an interview with Germany’s Funke media group. “Therefore we must prepare ourselves for a long war in Ukraine.”
Ukraine will be able to conduct more attacks on Russian ships, a Ukrainian minister who has played a key role in building the country’s drone industry told Reuters after a recent series of sea raids. “There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” the digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said in an interview on Friday.
Russia will probably be able to build a significant stockpile of air-launched cruise missiles and use them to target Ukrainian infrastructure over the coming winter, the UK Ministry of Defence says. In its latest intelligence update, the ministry said air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) – particularly the modern AS-23a Kodiak – were at the heart of most of Russia’s long-range strikes against Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure between October 2022 and March 2023.
A body has been found in Ukraine in the search for a British man who was reported missing a month ago. Daniel Burke, 36, from south Manchester, was reported missing on 16 August by family who had not heard from him believing that he had travelled to Ukraine. Officers searching for Burke have been informed by Ukrainian authorities that they have found a body.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said on Saturday they planned to sell about 100 Ukrainian properties, including one belonging to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Vladimir Konstantinov, speaker of the Crimean parliament, said the nationalised properties would be sold “soon” and the authorities had held the first eight auctions for the properties of Ukrainian business figures, Reuters reports.
Donald Trump enjoyed hearing that he had drawn praise from the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, the former US president and frontrunner for the 2024 Republican White House nomination has said. Told during a recorded interview with the new NBC Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker that Putin had fawned over his stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump replied: “I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.”
Poland is set to ban the entry of passenger cars registered in Russia starting on Sunday, state-run Polish news agency PAP has reported. Poland’s interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski, said the ban is a further part of sanctions imposed on Russia and its citizens in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Moscow has dismissed as “politically motivated” the conviction of Russian businessman Vladislav Klyushin in a US court for participating in a $93m insider-trading scheme, the state news agency RIA reported on Saturday. Klyushin, who has ties to the Kremlin, was sentenced on 7 September to nine years in prison after being found guilty in February of trading shares using hacked secret earnings information about multiple companies.
