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

At least four people were killed and another six injured in Russia’s multi-wave overnight attacks on Ukraine’s two largest cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said today.

Russia attacks Ukrainian regions almost every night with drones and the Ukrainian military reported that last night they shot down 26 out of 48 drones launched.

Four people were killed in Kharkiv after midnight in Russia’s bombardment of the city’s Osnovianskyi district, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Nato chief Mark Rutte joined Seoul, Washington and Kyiv in confirming Pyongyang’s dispatch of troops to Russia, saying North Korean military units had been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region near the Ukraine border.

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” he said yesterday. The deployment of North Korean troops to Kursk is “also a sign of [president] Putin’s growing desperation,” he said.

“The deployment of North Korean troops represents: one, a significant escalation in the DPRK’s [North Korea’s official name] ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war. Two, yet another breach of UN Security Council resolutions. And three, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war,” Mr Rutte said yesterday after Nato officials and diplomats were briefed by a South Korean delegation.

Ukraine’s air defences downed 26 of 48 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian military said this morning.

The air force said it lost track of 20 drones and one more returned to Russia.

North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia who could join Moscow‘s fight in Ukraine in the “next several weeks”, the Pentagon said amid rising concerns over Pyongyong’s involvement in Vladimir Putin’s war.

The soldiers were believed to be heading for the border region of Kursk, where Moscow recently suffered defeats and has been struggling to push back Ukrainian troops, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Sigh said on Monday.

On Tuesday, South Korean lawmakers, briefed by the country’s spy agency, said some high-ranking North Korean military officials and troops deployed to Russia might move to the frontline.

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.”

A Russian guided bomb attack on Kharkiv yesterday shattered much of the Derzhprom building, one of the most celebrated landmarks in Ukraine’s second city, dating from the 1920s.

Six people were injured in the 9pm strike, adding to 13 wounded in an earlier overnight bomb attack on the city.

The Derzhprom building, placed on the “tentative” list of Unesco World Heritage Sites, was completed in 1928 when Kharkiv was the capital of Soviet Ukraine.

Reuters Television video showed parts of the Derzhprom building reduced to rubble and virtually all of its windows shattered.

“The occupiers have struck an iconic symbol of the city, known to all residents of Kharkiv,” Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Kharkiv region, wrote on Telegram. He said several floors had been destroyed.

President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the strike on Kharkiv’s Derzhprom (State Industry) building, one of the most striking examples of Soviet-era constructivism architecture and dubbed the Soviet Union’s first skyscraper.

Writing on X, he also deplored the attack on Kryvyi Rih, his home town, and called for renewed efforts to force Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin to halt the war.

“Every handshake with war criminal Putin boosts his confidence. Every pleasant smile convinces him that he can get away with his crimes,” Mr Zelensky wrote.

“Instead of cosying up to him, we must force him into peace through our collective decisiveness.”

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.

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.

Some high-ranking North Korean military officials and troops deployed to Russia for the war in Ukraine might move to the frontline, the Yonhap news agency reported today, citing South Korea’s spy agency.

The Pentagon has already said last night that North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks”. The move will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the western leaders.

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since the second World War will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.