Ukraine-Russia live: Kyiv outraged by UN chief’s ‘trip to meet Putin’ as Russian commander killed with hammer

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

Of these, 11 drones were downed over the territory of the Bryansk region, three over the Belgorod region, and the rest over the Kursk, Tula and Oryol regions, the ministry said.

South Korea on Monday demanded the immediate pullout of North Korean troops allegedly deployed in Russia as it summoned the Russian ambassador to protest deepening military cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow.

South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that North Korea sent 1,500 special operation forces to Russia earlier this month to support Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said his government had intelligence that 10,000 North Korean soldiers were being prepared to join invading Russian forces.

The US and its allies have raised the alarm after Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that North Korea was sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia in its war in Ukraine.

The Ukrainian president claimed last week, without providing any details, that his government had intelligence that nearly 10,000 soldiers from North Korea were being prepared to join the Russian forces fighting in his country.

“They are preparing on their land 10,000 soldiers but they didn’t move them already to Ukraine or to Russia,” he told reporters at the Nato headquarters in Brussels.

Google, Meta and TikTok have removed social media posts from a industrial plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region aimed at recruiting young foreign women to make drones for Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Accounts on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok were taken down following an investigation by The Associated Press published Oct. 10 that detailed working conditions in the drone factory in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which is under U.S. and British sanctions.

Videos and other posts on the social media platforms promised the young women, who are largely from Africa, a free plane ticket to Russia and a salary of more than $500 a month following their recruitment via the program called “Alabuga Start.”

But instead of a work-study program in areas like hospitality and catering, some of them said they learned only arriving in the Tatarstan region that they would be toiling in a factory to make weapons of war, assembling thousands of Iranian-designed attack drones to be launched into Ukraine.

In interviews with AP, some of the women who worked in the complex complained of long hours under constant surveillance, of broken promises about wages and areas of study, and of working with caustic chemicals that left their skin pockmarked and itching. AP did not identify them by name or nationality out of concern for their safety.

United Arab Emirates is ready to support efforts to find peace in Ukraine, president Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told Russian president Vladimir Putin yesterday.

The two met for informal talks on Sunday that went on until midnight at his residence outside Moscow.

“We continue to make efforts to mediate the exchange of prisoners,” Sheikh Mohammed told Putin in the Kremlin, through a translator. “And I assure you that we will continue to work in this direction. We are ready to make any efforts to resolve crises and in the interests of peace, in the interests of both sides.”

The Russian president has previously praised both Sheikh Mohammed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their mediation efforts over Ukraine.

A senior Russian air force commander who is believed to have been behind an attack on a Ukrainian shopping centre has been killed, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency said.

Col Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, was beaten to death with a hammer in an unspecified location inside Russia, the intelligence body said.

Photos published by the agency showed a man with a head injury lying on ground. The agency said it was Golenkov, though this could not be independently verified.

“A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot has been liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation. His head was smashed with a hammer,” the post said. The Tupolev Tu-22M3 jet is a modernised version of a Soviet-era long-range strategic bomber.

Ukraine said Golenkov was behind one of the most lethal airstrikes on Ukraine, one which targeted a shopping centre with rocket.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot pledged his support for Ukraine’s plan for ending the 2 1/2-year war with Russia, telling reporters in Kyiv on Saturday that he will work with Ukrainian officials to secure other nations’ backing for the proposal.

Unveiled by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this week, Kyiv’s so-called “victory plan” hopes to compel Russia to end its invasion of Ukraine through negotiations.

The proposal is being considered by Ukraine’s Western partners, whose help is vital for Kyiv to resist its bigger neighbor. A key element would be a formal invitation into NATO, which Western backers have been reluctant to consider until after the war ends.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has criticised the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres for what it said was his acceptance of an invitation from Vladimir Putin to the Russia-hosted Brics summit this week.

The UN has neither confirmed nor denied whether Mr Guterres will be attending the summit in Kazan,

“The UN secretary general declined Ukraine’s invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland,” the ministry said. “He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin. This is a wrong choice that does not advance the cause of peace. It only damages the UN’s reputation,” the ministry said.

Putin hosts a summit of Brics nations in the central Russian city of Kazan from Tuesday, aimed at showcasing the clout of non-Western countries. Leaders attending include Chinese president Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.

According to Russian officials, Mr Guterres had told minister Sergei Lavrov at the UN general assembly last month that he intended to go to Kazan.

It is not clear if the UN chief is visiting Kazan. “Announcements on his future travels will be later on down the line,” said deputy UN spokesperson Farham Haq.

The US “will get Ukraine what it needs” to fight its war with Russia and “to fight for its survival and security”, US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said in his Kyiv visit.

Speaking at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine, the Pentagon chief noted that the US has delivered more than $58bn in security assistance for Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, making it Kyiv’s main backer.

Mr Austin said “there is no silver bullet. No single capability will turn the tide. No one system will end Putin’s assault.” He added: “Make no mistake. The United States does not seek war with Russia.”

“What matters is the way that Ukraine fights back,” Mr Austin told the assembled diplomatic and military personnel at the academy. “What matters is the combined effects of your military capabilities. And what matters is staying focused on what works.”

However, he gave no indication of whether Washington would endorse the key planks of Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-point “victory plan”.