Ukraine Russia war latest: North Korea vows to back Putin as US claims thousands join

Japan and the European Union announced a security and defense partnership on Friday as they seek to step up military ties, including joint exercises and exchanges between their defense industries, amid growing tensions with China, North Korea and Russia.

It is the first security partnership that the EU has concluded with an Indo-Pacific country, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters.

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 unleashed an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv that lasted into late morning and wounded at least one person, city officials said on Saturday.

Debris from downed drones struck six city districts, wounding a police officer, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to city military administrator Serhiy Popko.

Mayor Vitalii Klitschko had earlier reported that two people had been injured.

“Another night. Another air-raid alert. Another drone attack. The armed forces of the Russian Federation attacked Kyiv again according to their old and familiar tactics,” Popko wrote on social media.

He said all the drones aimed at Kyiv had been shot down, but warned that others currently located in airspace outside the city could turn toward the capital.

Reuters correspondents reported hearing explosions in and around the city during an air-raid alert that lasted more than five hours.

Russia has carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war which began when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

Kyiv’s military said on Friday that Moscow’s forces had launched more than 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone.

Russia has denied aiming at civilians and said power facilities are legitimate targets when they are part of Ukrainian military infrastructure.

Fires have broken out in several districts in Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital was attacked with Russian drones, the advisor to Ukraine’s internal affairs minister has said.

Anton Gerashchenko said in a post on X on Saturday morning: “Kyiv is under a Russian drone attack this morning.

“Explosions heard in the city. Fires in several districts.”

Anti-aircraft fire, explosions and the buzzing of kamikaze drones have been heard in Kyiv.

A journalist from the Kyiv Independent reported a “pretty loud Saturday morning” in the Ukrainian capital.

At least two people were wounded in an overnight Russian drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, city officials said on Saturday.

Debris from downed drones struck three city districts, damaging residential buildings and starting fires, according to military administrator Serhiy Popko.

The attack was still ongoing on Saturday morning, authorities said, with Reuters correspondents reporting hearing explosions in and around the city.

Russia has carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front lines of the war which began when Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

Kyiv’s military said on Friday that Moscow’s forces had launched more than 2,000 drones at civilian and military targets across Ukraine in October alone.

Russia has denied aiming at civilians and said power facilities are legitimate targets when they are part of Ukrainian military infrastructure.

A senior European diplomat based in Kyiv has told Reuters that Ukrainian officials are less worried about Donald Trump potentially re-entering the White House than some might expect, in part because Ukraine was losing territory even with the military and economic support it receives.

“At least Trump might shake things up a bit,” the diplomat said.

But the uncertainty over what Trump would do to try to end the war is causing considerable unease, with Kyiv-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko saying: “The main problem is that Trump promises to initiate negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine immediately after his victory, but we do not know on what terms.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he had “nothing to add to what has already been said” about Western statements that North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia to help in its war against Ukraine.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Thursday that Pyongyang had 10,000 troops in Russia, including 8,000 in its western Kursk region that he said were expected to go into combat against Ukraine in the coming days.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean soldiers on its territory.

Russia has been training North Korean soldiers in artillery, drones and “basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in front line operations,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said.

North Korea’s efforts to tighten its relationship with Russia has raised concerns around the world about how that may expand the war in Ukraine and what Russian military aid will be delivered in exchange.

It’s become a key topic as US and South Korean leaders met this week in Washington, fuelling concerns that the presence of those soldiers will further destabilise the Asia-Pacific region and broaden Moscow’s war on Ukraine.