Zelensky briefed on North Korean ‘involvement’ in war; Kyiv urges Brazil to arrest Putin if he attends G20 summit

Ukraine’s top prosecutor said he had received intelligence indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin may attend the G20 summit in Brazil next month, and called on authorities there to carry out a warrant for his arrest if he showed up.

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal believes Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his Novichok poisoning, an inquiry into the death of a woman who was unwittingly poisoned by the nerve agent was told on Monday.

Zelensky briefed on North Korean ‘involvement’ in war

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday he had been briefed about North Korea’s involvement in the war in his country and Russia’s plans for this autumn and winter.

North Korea, a burgeoning Kremlin ally, has supplied ballistic missiles and ammunition rounds to Russia, which Moscow’s forces have used in their war in Ukraine, says Kyiv.

The Ukrainian leader gave his latest update on Russian-North Korean cooperation in a nightly address to the nation, in which he said he had met top Kyiv officials earlier to hear reports.

“Among the most important was the report of the intelligence services ... on the intentions of the Russians for the autumn and winter. Everything was quite detailed. The actual involvement of North Korea in the war,” he said.

He provided no further information. It came a day after he said, also without elaborating, that North Korea had transferred personnel to the Russian armed forces.

South Korea’s Defence Minister Kim Yong-hyun said last week that “there was a high possibility” that North Korea could deploy troops to help Russia. The Kremlin dismissed that statement as “fake news”.

Ukraine urges Brazil to arrest Putin if he attends G20 summit

Ukraine’s top prosecutor said he had received intelligence indicating that Russian President Vladimir Putin may attend the G20 summit in Brazil next month, and called on authorities there to carry out a warrant for his arrest if he showed up.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued a warrant for Putin in March 2023, roughly a year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, accusing him of the war crime of deporting children.

Russia denies allegations of war crimes and the Kremlin has dismissed the ICC warrant as “null and void”.

When asked if a decision had been made on whether Putin would attend the meeting of the world’s 20 leading economies, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday: “No. When a decision is made, we will let you know.”

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin told Reuters in an interview that “it’s important for the international community to stand united and hold Putin accountable”.

Due to “information that Putin may attend the G20 summit in Brazil, I would like to reiterate that it’s an obligation for the Brazilian authorities as a state party of the Rome Statute to arrest him if he dares to visit,” Kostin said, referring to the treaty that established the ICC.

“I truly hope that Brazil will arrest him, reaffirming its status as a democracy and a state governed by the rule of law,” he said.

Putin ordered Novichok attack, double agent tells UK inquiry

Former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal believes Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his Novichok poisoning, an inquiry into the death of a woman who was unwittingly poisoned by the nerve agent was told on Monday.

Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped unconscious on a public bench in the southern English city of Salisbury in March 2018 after Novichok was applied to the front door handle of his home.

Four months later, mother-of-three Dawn Sturgess died from exposure to the poison after her partner found a counterfeit perfume bottle which police believe had been used by Russian spies to smuggle the military-grade nerve agent into the country.

The Skripals and a police officer who went to Skripal’s house were left critically ill from its effects, but recovered.

Their poisoning led to the biggest East-West diplomatic expulsions since the Cold War. Russia has repeatedly rejected British accusations that it was involved.

Skripal has not spoken publicly since the attack, but in a statement to the public inquiry into Sturgess’s death, he said he blamed Putin, though he acknowledged he had no concrete evidence.

“I believe Putin makes all important decisions himself. I therefore think he must have at least given permission for the attack on Yulia and me,” Skripal said in the statement read out by Andrew O’Connor, the lawyer to the inquiry.

Skripal — who sold Russian secrets to Britain, went there after a 2010 spy swap and said he knew Putin personally — said he was aware of allegations that the Russian president had been involved in illegal activity to do with the disposal of rare metals.

“I have read that Putin is personally very interested in poison and likes reading books about it,” his statement said.

It was also the British government’s view that Russian agents carried out the attack in an operation authorised by Putin, lawyer Cathryn McGahey told the inquiry.

EU includes Iran Air in sanctions over missile transfer to Russia

The European Union agreed on Monday to impose sanctions on seven people and seven organisations, including the airline Iran Air, for their links to Iranian transfers of ballistic missiles to Russia.

The listings also include Saha Airlines, Mahan Air and Iran’s Deputy Defence Minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari.

Last month, the US, citing intelligence it said had been shared with allies, said Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran for its war in Ukraine.

Washington imposed sanctions on ships and companies it said were involved in weapons transfers. Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said his government had not transferred any weapons to Russia since it took office in August.

Also facing sanctions under the EU move are prominent officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and the managing directors of Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries and Aerospace Industries Organization.

The sanctions include an asset freeze and a travel ban to the European Union.

Russia sentences French researcher to three years

French researcher Laurent Vinatier was found guilty by a Moscow court on Monday of breaking Russia’s “foreign agent” laws and sentenced to three years in prison.

Vinatier (48) is one of several Westerners to have been charged under Russian security laws at a time of tense confrontation between Moscow and the West over the war in Ukraine. The judge ignored a plea by the defence to fine him instead of jailing him.

In a speech to the court before he was sentenced, Vinatier said he loved Russia, apologised for breaking the law, and even recited a verse by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.

Wearing a blue open-necked shirt and jeans, he stood behind metal bars and listened intently as the judge rattled off the verdict. He was blinking rapidly but did not show any visible emotion.

A longtime researcher on the former Soviet Union, he was arrested in June by the FSB security service and accused of failing to register as a foreign agent in Russia while collecting military information of value to foreign intelligence services.

France says Vinatier has been arbitrarily detained and has called for his release. President Emmanuel Macron has denied that Vinatier worked for the French state and has described his arrest as part of a misinformation campaign by Moscow.

Vinatier is an employee of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Swiss-based conflict mediation organisation. Fellow academics who know him have told Reuters he is a respected scholar involved in legitimate research.

The FSB said in July that Vinatier had tried to use his numerous contacts with political scientists, sociologists, economists, military experts and government officials to collect military details “that could be used by foreign intelligence services to the detriment” of Russia’s security.

Top BRICS economic officials stay away from Moscow meeting

Most finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the BRICS group of countries did not attend a high-level meeting in Moscow on Friday ahead of a BRICS summit later this month, sending more junior officials instead, official documents showed.

Finance ministers from Egypt and the United Arab Emirates and the head of Iran’s central bank were present as Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov called for the creation of an alternative to the Western-dominated global financial system.

But finance ministers and bank chiefs from China, India and South Africa stayed away, sending deputies or more junior officials instead, a day after Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov accused the West of pressuring countries not to attend the BRICS summit.

BRICS, originally comprising Brazil, Russia, India, and China, has expanded to include South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the UAE.

The Moscow meeting is modelled on the Group of 20 schedule, where summits are preceded by meetings of top economic policy officials who outline proposals to be reviewed by leaders at the summit.

Russia, heavily sanctioned by the West over its war in Ukraine and cut off from international capital markets, is trying to woo BRICS partners with initiatives such as the creation of the BRICS Bridge international payment system.

More than 30,000 evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine

Some 30,415 people including nearly 8,000 children have been evacuated from areas bordering Ukraine due to shelling and attacks, Russia’s human rights commissioner said in remarks published on Monday.

Tatyana Moskalkova, the commissioner, told news outlet Argumenty I Fakty in an interview that the evacuees had been placed in nearly 1,000 temporary accommodation centres across Russia.

Ukraine, subjected to an invasion from Russia since February 2022, has retaliated with shelling and other attacks on Russia’s border regions, with the military saying the strikes target infrastructure key to Moscow’s war effort.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, taking control of dozens of settlements and holding most positions since.

Moskalkova said she had received appeals regarding more than 1,000 Russian citizens from Kursk, whose whereabouts are unknown and who were said to have been taken by Ukrainian forces.

Reuters could not independently verify Moskalkova’s reports. There was no immediate comment from Kyiv.

Both sides deny targeting or imprisoning civilians but thousands have died in the war, the vast majority of them Ukrainians.

Moskalkova also told the news outlet that she had visited more than 2,000 Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia and that similar visits with Russian prisoners have been conducted by her counterpart in Ukraine. DM