South Korea’s military said on Monday it had detected signs of North Korea preparing to send more troops and weapons, including suicide drones, to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday criticised what he said was Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s lack of desire to end his country’s dependency on Russian natural resources as a “big security issue” for Europe and Slovakia.
Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia’s Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for President Vladimir Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.
North Korea ‘preparing more troops, drones for Russia’
South Korea’s military said on Monday it had detected signs of North Korea preparing to send more troops and weapons, including suicide drones, to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.
Pyongyang has already provided 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers to Russia and was seen preparing to produce more suicide drones to be shipped there after leader Kim Jong-un guided a test last month, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
“Suicide drones are one of the tasks that Kim Jong Un has focused on,” a JCS official said, adding that the North had expressed its intention of giving them to Russia.
Such drones have been widely used in the Ukraine war, and Kim ordered a mass production of the aerial weapons and an update of military theory and education, citing intensifying global competition, state media reported.
Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have said there are about 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia. The JCS said at least 1,100 of them had been killed or wounded, in line with last week’s briefing by South Korea’s spy agency which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region.
Pyongyang’s growing military ties with Moscow could pose greater threats to Seoul as it modernises its conventional forces, which are deemed inferior to the South’s, and gains combat experience, said the official.
Along the heavily fortified Korean border, the North has dispatched up to 10,000 soldiers to turn the area into a wasteland and install barriers and barbed wire in recent weeks, though the numbers fell to several hundred over the weekend, said the JCS.
Zelensky slams Slovak PM’s ‘dependence on Russia’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday criticised what he said was Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s lack of desire to end his country’s dependency on Russian natural resources as a “big security issue” for Europe and Slovakia.
Zelensky made the comments after Fico met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Sunday. Fico said the meeting was in response to talks with Zelensky, whom he accused of opposing any gas transit through Ukraine to his country.
“His key goal is to deal with Russia, and this is what benefits him. This is indeed a big security issue — both for Slovakia and the entire Europe,” said Zelensky on X.
“Why is this leader so dependent on Moscow? What is being paid to him, and what does he pay with?” he added.
Ukraine has repeatedly said it would not extend a transit deal for gas flows from Russia to Europe, which expires on 1 January. Payments for the gas have helped Russia to wage its almost three-year war in Ukraine, says Kyiv.
The flow through Ukraine accounts for around half of Russia’s total pipeline gas exports to Europe. Slovakia, Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic will be the most affected if it ends.
Slovakia, which has a long-term contract with Russia’s Gazprom, has been trying to keep receiving gas through Ukraine, saying buying elsewhere would cost it €220-million more in transit expenses.
Zelensky said that Moscow was providing significant discounts for Fico but added that Slovakia was paying for them by its sovereignty or via “murky schemes”. He gave no details.
“This should be a matter of concern for Slovakia’s law enforcement and special services,” he added.
Fico said on Sunday that Putin had confirmed Russia’s willingness to continue to supply gas to Slovakia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he could not give more details.
Black Sea oil spill volunteers ask Putin to send urgent help
Volunteers helping to clean up a major oil spill along Russia’s Black Sea coast appealed in a video released on Monday for Putin to urgently send federal aid, saying that they and local authorities were overwhelmed.
The pollution, which has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular summer resort, has caused serious problems for seabirds and everything from dolphins to porpoises.
The oil is from two ageing tankers hit by a storm on 15 December. One of the vessels split in half, while the other ran aground.
On Thursday, Putin called the incident an ecological disaster and officials from Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said more than 10,000 people were now involved in the clean-up.
However, a group of about 30 local volunteers, who filmed their appeal on a beach strewn with sacks full of polluted sand, told Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin that they believed the scale of the disaster was too big for local authorities to cope with and demanded Moscow send urgent help.
Russia captures two villages in Ukraine
Russian forces captured two villages in Ukraine, one in the Kharkiv region in the northeast and one in the eastern Donetsk region, said the Russian Defence Ministry on Sunday.
Donetsk region is where Moscow is concentrating most of its efforts to seize two cities.
Russian forces, making steady progress across the Donetsk region, were moving on the towns of Pokrovsk, a logistics centre and site of an important coking colliery, and appeared to be closing in on Kurakhove, farther south.
The Defence Ministry statement said troops had taken control of Lozova, near the town of Kupiansk, in an area north of the Donetsk region also under Russian pressure in recent weeks. The village of Sontsivka, north of Kurakhove, was also captured.
The ministry on Saturday announced the capture of another village near Kurakhove, Kostiantynopolske.
The Ukraine military’s general staff made no mention of those villages falling into Russian hands, but said Sontsivka was in a sector subject to 26 Russian attacks in the past 24 hours. The general staff also reported heavy fighting near Pokrovsk, with 34 Russian attempts to pierce defences.
The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Sontsivka was under Russian control.
Russian reports have described intensified pressure on Kurakhove.
The Moscow-appointed governor of areas of the Donetsk region occupied by Russian forces, Denis Pushilin, said on Telegram that Russian troops now controlled the town centre. He also said troops were advancing on Pokrovsk from the south.
Russian delegation arrives in Iran for meeting with president
A Russian delegation arrived in Tehran for a visit that includes a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Russian state news agency Tass reported on Monday, as the two countries prepare to sign a comprehensive cooperation agreement.
Iran and Russia had been working on setting a date to complete an agreement, said Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, on Monday, adding that the deal was set to be signed during a bilateral visit in January.
Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the US, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war.
The country’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said in October that Moscow and Tehran intended to sign a deal which would include closer defence cooperation.
The Russian delegation to Iran is headed by deputy prime ministers Alexei Overchuk and Vitaly Savelev, according to Russia’s Interfax news agency.
“The parties are expected to discuss the joint work of Iran and the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) within the framework of a full-fledged agreement on a free trade zone,” said Interfax on Monday.
The US accused Tehran in September of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine, and imposed sanctions on ships and companies it said were involved in delivering Iranian weapons. Tehran denies providing Moscow with the missiles.
Ukraine says it downed 47 Russia-launched drones
Ukraine’s air force said on Monday it had shot down 47 out of 72 Russia-launched drones across the country, while 25 more failed to reach targets.
In a statement on Telegram, it said that the military repelled attacks in nine regions, including the Kyiv region, surrounding Ukraine’s capital.
According to the air force, unidentified private entities and houses were damaged in the Kyiv region and the western region of Khmelnytskyi.
One person was injured in the Khmelnytskyi region, and a power line was damaged in the Kyiv region, according to local authorities.
Russian general targeted Reuters staff in missile strike, says Kyiv
Ukraine’s security service has named a Russian general it suspects of ordering a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August and said he acted “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of” Reuters.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement on Friday that Colonel General Alexei Kim, a deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, approved the strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency’s journalists on 24 August.
In a statement posted on Telegram, the SBU said it was notifying Kim in absentia that he was an official suspect in its investigation into the strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a step in Ukrainian criminal proceedings that can lead to charges.
In a separate, 15-page notice of suspicion, in which the SBU set out findings from its investigation, the agency said that the decision to fire the missile was made “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of the international news agency Reuters who were engaged in journalistic activities in Ukraine”.
The document, which was published on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, said that Kim had received intelligence that Reuters staff were staying in Kramatorsk. It added that Kim would have been “fully aware that the individuals were civilians and not participating in the armed conflict”.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an emailed comment to Reuters that “the Russian military only strikes military infrastructure” in Ukraine.
Reuters said on Friday: “We note the news today from the Ukrainian security services regarding the missile attack on August 24, 2024, on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a civilian target more than 20 km from Russian-occupied territory.”
“The strike had devastating consequences, killing our safety adviser, Ryan Evans, and injuring members of our editorial team. We continue to seek more information about the attack. It is critically important for journalists to be able to report freely and safely,” the statement said.
The SBU statement gave some details about how the strike had occurred, according to its investigation.
“To carry out the attack, the Russian colonel general involved one of his subordinate missile forces units,” the Ukrainian agency said, adding that the strike was carried out with an Iskander-M ballistic missile.
The SBU did not identify the specific unit.
Ivan Lyubysh-Kirdey, a videographer for the news agency who was in a room across the corridor, was seriously wounded. Kyiv-based text correspondent Dan Peleschuk was also injured.
The remaining three members of the Reuters team escaped with minor cuts and scratches.
Nato chief says Zelensky’s criticism of Scholz is unfair
Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he considered the sometimes harsh criticism of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz by Zelensky to be unjustified, news wire DPA reported.
Although Germany has been a vital ally of Ukraine, its hesitation in providing long-range Taurus cruise missiles has been a source of frustration in Kyiv, which is battling a foe armed with a powerful array of long-range weaponry.
“I have often told Zelensky that he should stop criticising Olaf Scholz, because I think it is unfair,” DPA quoted Rutte on Monday as saying in an interview.
Rutte also said that he, unlike Scholz, would supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles and would not set limits on their use.
“In general, we know that such capabilities are very important for Ukraine,” Rutte said, adding that it was not up to him to decide what allies should deliver.
After a November telephone call by Scholz with Putin in November, Zelensky said it had opened a Pandora’s box that undermined efforts to isolate the Russian leader and end the war in Ukraine with a “fair peace”.
Ukraine says it received $1.1bn from IMF in latest funding
Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday the country had received $1.1-billion from the International Monetary Fund, which would be used for key budget expenditure.
Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said Ukraine had already received $5.4-billion from the IMF so far this year.
Kyiv relies heavily on foreign financial aid to cover social expenditure and to support the economy as Ukraine’s military continues to battle Russian forces, almost three years since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.
Ukraine allocates its own revenues to security and defence. DM