Ukraine-Russia war live: North Korean troops ‘already in Ukraine’ as Kyiv drafts 160,000 more into frontline

The US will not enforce any new limits on Ukraine’s use of American weapons if North Korea joins Russia’s war, the Pentagon has said.

On being asked if the US will have limits on what American weapons can be used if it’s a bunch of North Korean soldiers, Pentagon press secretary said: “No... If North Korea – if we see DPRK troops moving in and towards the front lines, I mean, they are co-belligerents in the war. And so, they are fighting on these front lines and the Ukrainians are defending their sovereign territory and pushing the Russians back,” she said.

“...But they would — if they are in combat, you know, they’re fighting the Ukrainians, who are fighting for their sovereign territory. And we’ve made a commitment to Ukraine that we’re going to continue to support them with whatever it takes,” she said.

Ms Singh added that North Korea is sending their soldiers in into a war where Russian casualties and losses are “upwards of 500,000 at this point”.

“That is a calculation that, you know, DPRK leadership is making to send their soldiers into combat,” she said.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Nato chief’s Mark Rutte’s comments about North Korean troops deployment to Russia, and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June.

But he stopped short on Monday of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia. Mr Lavrov alleged that Western military instructors long have been covertly deployed to Ukraine to help its military use long-range weapons provided by Western partners.

Russia test-fired missiles over distances of thousands of miles on Tuesday to simulate a “massive” nuclear response to an enemy first strike.

“Given the growing geopolitical tensions and the emergence of new external threats and risks, it is important to have modern and constantly ready-to-use strategic forces,” President Vladimir Putin said as he announced the exercise.

It took place at a critical moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, after weeks of Russian signals to the West that Moscow will respond if the United States and its allies allow Kyiv to fire longer-range missiles deep into Russia.

On Monday NATO said that North Korea has sent troops to western Russia, something Moscow has not denied.

In televised comments, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov told Putin that the purpose of the drill was to practise delivering “a massive nuclear strike by strategic offensive forces in response to a nuclear strike by the enemy”.

The exercise involved Russia’s full nuclear “triad” of ground-, sea- and air-launched missiles.

A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from Plesetsk cosmodrome in northwest Russia to Kamchatka, a peninsula in the far east. Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles were fired from submarines, and cruise missiles were launched from strategic bomber planes, the defence ministry said.

North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, is on her way to Moscow, state media KCNA and Russian officials said today, for her second trip to Russia in six weeks amid rising concerns about Pyongyang’s involvement in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

KCNA said a delegation led by Ms Chloe left yesterday for an official visit to Russia, without elaborating.

Russia’s ambassador to Pyongyang, Alexander Matsegora, saw off Ms Choe at the airport, the Russian embassy said in a statement posted on the embassy’s Vkontakte social media page.

“The visit of the head of the DPRK [North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] foreign ministry to the Russian Federation is taking place within the framework of a strategic dialogue - following an agreement to enhance ties reached by the leaders of our countries during the June 2024 summit,” the statement said.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken will meet with their South Korean counterparts on Thursday in Washington.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Mr Austin and defence minister Kim Yong-hyun will discuss the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine.

Warning that there will be no limitations on the use of US-provided weapons on those forces, Ms Singh said: “If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war. This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”

Norway has agreed with US authorities to buy air defence missiles for more than 4 billion Norwegian crowns (£280m), the Norwegian military has said, as it ramps up defence spending in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“With more and newer missiles, the Norwegian Armed Forces will have a better ability to protect Norway against air attacks,” Nato member Norway’s defence minister Bjoern Arild Gram said.

The missiles – which mark one of the largest weapons procurements ever for Norway’s armed forces – are primarily intended for Norway’s ground-based air defence system, but can also be included in the weapons inventory of F-35A fighter aircraft, the agency said.

At football games in Ukraine, crowd sizes are determined by the capacity of the nearest bomb shelter.

For the first time since the full-scale war began in 2022, the Ukrainian Premier League is holding a full season with fans present, as martial-law bans on public gatherings have been eased.

Despite the constant threat of airstrikes, Dynamo Kyiv supporters eagerly snap up the 1,700 tickets available for each home game at the 16,000-seat Valeriy Lobanovskyi Stadium. Many fans are keen to experience a rare moment of calm, free from the country’s traditionally intense sporting rivalries.

Ukraine’s Premier League is holding its first full season with fans present since the start of the full-scale war in 2022, with crowd sizes limited by the capacity of nearby bomb shelters

If elected US president, Donald Trump could seek to reimagine the Minsk agreements, which aimed to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists, a longtime adviser has told the Financial Times.

But this time there would be enforcement mechanisms with consequences for breaching the deal, policed by European troops – as opposed to Nato or UN peacekeeping forces, the aide said, adding: “There are two things America will insist on. We will not have any men or women in the enforcement mechanism. We’re not paying for it. Europe is paying for it.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said he told China's president Xi Jinping that North Korean activities with Russia were an escalation and provocation in a message on behalf of NATO and the EU during talks in Beijing on Tuesday.

Stubb and Xi met as North Korea's foreign minister arrived in Russia, with Western military alliance NATO and South Korea warning that Pyongyang's troops could soon be entering the Ukraine war on Moscow's side.

“Right now we are very much in a situation whereby Russian aggression has violated international law. I look forward to discussing peaceful solutions on that path,” Stubb said in a brief speech during an official visit to China until the end of the month.

In July, Stubb called on Xi to help end the war in Ukraine, saying that Russia’s dependence on China meant that Xi Jinping could solve the issue with a single phone call.

Stubb said today that he felt the Chinese-North Korean relationship “is not very comfortable at the moment”, and that he had warned Xi supporting Russia would have negative implications for EU ties.

“The more China supports Russia, the more difficult the relationship with Europe, and especially the European Union, becomes,” Stubb said.

President Vladimir Putin kicked off a new exercise of Russia’s nuclear forces today, marking the second such drill that Moscow has held in two weeks.

In a video released by the Kremlin, Putin said using nuclear weapons would be an “extremely exceptional measure” but they need to be kept ready for use.

“We will work out the actions of officials to control the use of nuclear weapons with practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles,” Putin was shown saying in a video clip announcing the drill.

“We will continue to improve all their components. The resources for this are available. I stress that we are not going to get involved in a new arms race, but we will maintain nuclear forces at the level of necessary sufficiency,” he said.

The drill follows an October 18 exercise in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, involving a unit equipped with Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking US cities.