Ukraine-Russia live: Leaked video shows North Korean soldiers being kitted out for war, Kyiv claims

Four firefighters in an industrial zone in Dzerzhinsk in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region received minor shrapnel wounds from a Ukrainian drone attack, the region’s governor said on Sunday.

“They were given the necessary medical care, everyone was sent home,” Gleb Nikitin said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Russian RIA agency reported that Russian air defence systems destroyed 110 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including eight over Nizhny Novgorod region, some 400 km east of Moscow.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 18 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said today.

Of these, 11 of the drones were downed over the territory of the Rostov region, while the rest was destroyed over the Bryansk, Kursk and Oryol regions, the ministry said.

Russia launched several waves of drones targeting Kyiv for the second night in a row, damaging residential buildings and injuring at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said early today.

“Another night, another worry,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration said. “The enemy does not reduce the intensity of air attacks on Ukraine and Kyiv.”

About 10 drones targeting the city in several waves and from different directions were destroyed, Mr Popko said. While none of the weapons hit their target, falling debris injured at least one man, he added.

Debris fell onto three of Kyiv’s major districts, causing some damage to roofs and the facades of several residential buildings and power cables, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Donald Trump held Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Joe Biden responsible for the Russia-Ukraine war in an interview — but made no reference to Vladimir Putin.

Two and a half years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump pinned the blame squarely on Zelensky and Biden for the conflict during an interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David, which aired Thursday.

“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, grumbling about how much aid the US has given Ukraine.

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Ukrainian officials have released a video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian military fatigues.

The video confirms Russia’s deployment of troops sent by Pyongyang into the conflict, they claimed. In the video, North Korean soldiers are seen standing in line to pick up bags, clothes and other apparel from Russian servicemen.

“We received this video from our own sources. We cannot provide additional verification from the sources who provided it to us due to security concerns,” said Ihor Solovey, the head of Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

“The video clearly shows North Korean citizens being given Russian uniforms under the direction of the Russian military,” he said.

“For Ukraine, this video is important because it is the first video evidence that shows North Korea participating in the war on the side of Russia. Now not only with weapons and shells but also with personnel.”

The centre claims the footage was shot by a Russian soldier in recent days. It didn’t say how the footage was obtained. The location is unknown.

Russian forces are fighting street-to-street battles with Ukrainian troops in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove, military bloggers have said.

“Street by street fighting is going on in the town,” according to Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. “The assault on Selydove has intensified.”

Other pro-Russian bloggers published video of intensive shelling of Selydove. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage. The Russian defence ministry did not comment.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military, in a late evening report yesterday, said Ukrainian forces had repelled 41 Russian attacks around several towns and villages, including Selydove. The report said four battles were still raging in the area.

The popular Ukrainian war blog DeepState showed Selydove to be in Ukrainian hands.

Moscow’s forces are pushing to gain control over the whole of the Donbas region, according to pro-Russian bloggers.

Ukraine’s air defence units repelled a fresh overnight Russian attack targeting Kyiv, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said early this morning.

In what was at least the third wave of the overnight attacks, drone debris fell onto the Dniprovskyi district of Kyiv, but according to preliminary information caused no damage or injuries, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration said.

Putin’s forces have not “managed to gain a foothold” in the war-town city of Chasiv Yar despite claims of Russian advances.

Anastasia Bobovnikova, a spokesperson of the operational tactical group Luhansk, told the Kyiv Independent: “I do not confirm the fact that Russian troops have managed to gain a foothold in the canal ... or anywhere in the direction of Chasiv Yar.

“The overall strategic position of the city remains under the control of Ukraine.”

It comes after the crowd-sourced war-monitoring website DeepState reported on October 17 that Russian forces had made advances.

Bobovnikova explained that groups of Russian soldiers had occasionally crossed the canal and carried out assaults on Ukrainian positions, adding: “However, such manoeuvres are accompanied by significant losses for the Russians. Ukrainian forces quickly repel such attacks, pushing Russian units back.”

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has shared a video of the moment Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) returned home to their families.

In a post on X, he said: “95 of our people are home again. These are the warriors who defended Mariupol and ‘Azovstal’, as well as the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Kherson regions.

“Each time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we bring closer the day when freedom will be returned to all those still held in Russian captivity.

“I thank the team involved in finding and liberating prisoners. We are doing everything to bring back all of our people held by Russia. I am grateful to the warriors who replenish the exchange fund and to all our partners who help us.”

Russia and Ukraine exchanged 95 prisoners of war on Friday, in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates, reported Agence France-Presse.

“As a result of the negotiation process, 95 Russian servicemen were returned from territory controlled by the Kyiv regime,” the Russian defence ministry said.“In return, 95 Ukrainian army prisoners of war were handed over,” it said.

The human rights centre Zmina confirmed that Ukrainian journalist and rights advocate Maksym Butkevych was also freed in this exchange. Butkevych was serving a 13-year sentence on charges of wounding two civilians while firing an anti-tank grenade launcher in the eastern city of Severodonetsk.

Butkevych told Ukrainian media outlet Hromadske that the exchange came without warning.

“No, I didn’t know, it was unexpected,” he said. “Yesterday morning, after the inspection, they told me that I was leaving in half an hour, but they didn’t tell me where. Accordingly, I packed my things because I thought I was being transported, not for an exchange. We found out about the exchange by accident on the way. It was a double surprise.”