Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow and Kyiv’s 190 PoW swap ‘unexpected’ as North Korea troops arrive in Russia

US President Joe Biden championed his NATO allies to continue their support of Ukraine on his visit to Berlin yesterday.

Mr Biden met Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, and were joined by French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister Keir Starmer for discussions.

“We should never underestimate the power of democracy, never underestimate the value of alliances,” Mr. Biden said at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin.

Western allies must “sustain our support (...) until Ukraine wins a just and sustainable peace. We’re headed into a very difficult winter. We cannot let up,” he added.

On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled a five-point “victory plan” to beat Russia to the European Union and NATO leaders, insisting that an “immediate invitation to Ukraine to join NATO would be decisive”.

Ukrainian troops have been caught up in fierce fighting for the town of Toretsk in the eastern region of Donetsk, which Russian troops entered on Friday, reported Al Jazeera.

“They erase the city with artillery. We have already seen it in other towns of Donbas. And after that, they storm in small groups. They are trying to find weak points in our defence with such small strikes,” Anastasia Bobovnikova, spokesperson for Luhansk Technical University said.

Head of Ukraine’s National Guard, Ruslan Muzychuk, said that Russia was trying to gain as much ground as possible before the rain makes it impossible for armoured vehicles to operate.

British foreign secretary David Lammy on Friday raised his concerns regarding China’s support of Russia in its war against Ukraine, and urged his Chinese counterpart to prevent Chinese firms from providing supplies to Russia, reported the Associated Press.

Mr Lammy is on a two-day visit to China, and met vice premier Ding Xuexiang, and held talks with foreign minister Wang Yi on Friday.

In a statement after the meeting, the Foreign Office said that Mr Lammy “stated how both the UK and China have a shared interest in European peace and ending the war. He reaffirmed that concerns over China’s supply of equipment to Russia’s military industrial complex risks damaging China’s relationships with Europe whilst helping to sustain Russia’s war”.

Mr Lammy urged Mr Wang to “take all measures to investigate and to prevent Chinese companies from supplying Russia’s military,” the statement said.

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 on Thursday 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.

Mr Zelensky made the claim, without offering further details, a day after US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell said Washington and its allies were concerned by North Korea’s military support for Russia.

South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday that North Korea has sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training and acclimatisation at local military bases, likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, reported Reuters.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it had been working with Ukraine’s intelligence service and identified North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region using facial recognition artificial intelligence technology.

“The direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed,” the spy agency said in a statement.

The free world “must not tremble” at Vladimir Putin’s threats, Volodymyr Zelensky has urged, as the Ukrainian president pressed for Nato and the EU to back his new “victory plan” to beat Russia.

In a hectic day of diplomacy in Brussels after unveiling the five-point plan he insists can end the war next year, Mr Zelensky sought to coalesce the support of Ukraine’s allies as he addressed European Union and Nato leaders in back-to-back meetings on Thursday.

With the plan hinging on the thorny issue of Nato membership for Ukraine, over which many of the military alliance’s member states are wary, Mr Zelensky underscored the test of allegiance facing Kyiv’s allies, declaring: “This plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners.”

“Russia may be loud but NATO is strong”, Nato’s new chief Mark Rutte told reporters on Friday, after chairing his first Nato defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

Condemning Vladimir Putin’s “increasingly irresponsible rhetoric”, he added that Nato allies were working hard to support Ukraine during the coming winter and that the main focus of the meeting was on getting massive military aid into Ukraine.

Sir Keir Starmer said allies are “absolutely united in our resolve” to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes”.

Speaking on a visit to Berlin, the prime minister said: “As Ukraine enters a difficult winter, it’s important to say we are with you. We’re absolutely united in our resolve and will back Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

He added that Russia was “getting weaker” as the war soaks up 40 per cent of its budget.

“The only acceptable outcome is a sovereign Ukraine and a just peace,” he said.