Ukraine-Russia live: Putin quiet over throwing North Korean forces into war as troops are spotted in Kursk

In a memoir released eight months after he died in prison, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny never loses faith that his cause is worth suffering for while also acknowledging he wished he could have written a very different book.

“There is a mishmash of bits and pieces, a traditional narrative followed by a prison diary,” Navalny writes in “Patriot,” which was published Tuesday, and is, indeed, a traditional narrative followed by a prison diary.

“I so much do not want my book to be yet another prison diary. Personally I find them interesting to read, but as a genre — enough is surely enough.”

Russia sent two waves of drones at the Ukrainian capital overnight in its 15th air attack on Kyiv this month, city officials said this morning.

More than a dozen drones were downed during the strike, which lasted around four hours, city military administrator Serhiy Popko said on Telegram.

He added that authorities had not received any reports of injuries and that debris had ignited a fire that was later extinguished.

Reuters correspondents reported hearing multiple explosions over the city early on Friday.

Russian forces have made a fast advance into the eastern Ukrainian coal mining town of Selydove, according to Russian media and war bloggers.

“The enemy’s defences crumbled suddenly,” said Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. Other pro-Russian bloggers gave similar accounts, and said that Russia was now in control of part of Selydove.

The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said that Russian forces were approaching the centre of Selydove, which had a population of over 20,000 before the war.

Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said the most intense Russian assaults along the entire front line were currently taking place in the vicinity of Selydove, and that Russia used both fighter and bomber aircraft to support its attack there.

The General Staff did not say whether or not the Russians were in the town or if Ukrainian forces had fallen back.

A Ukrainian frontline mapping project known as DeepState showed in its map Russian forces controlling the eastern outskirts of Selydove, while a significant chunk of its centre was assessed as a disputed “grey zone”.

Capturing Selydove would pave the way for a Russian advance on the key logistical hub of Pokrovsk, located about 20km (12 miles) northwest of Selydove.

Vladimir Putin was asked about former US president Donald Trump’s promise to end the fighting in Ukraine at a news conference last might “What Mr Trump said recently, what I heard, (is) he spoke about the desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine,” Putin said. “It seems to me that he said it sincerely. We certainly welcome statements of this kind, no matter who makes them.”

If the United States was open to normal relations with Russia, Moscow would be as well, Mr Putin added.

Moscow was ready to consider any options to end conflict in Ukraine, but only proceeding from “reality on the ground”, Russian president Vladimir Putin said.

“We are prepared to consider any options for peace agreements based on the realities on the ground. And are not ready for anything else,” Mr Putin said.

Ukraine’s military intelligence service said the first North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion in August.

“The first units of the military from the DPRK, which were trained at the eastern Russian training grounds, have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In particular, on 23 October, 2024, their presence was recorded in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian intelligence agency said in a statement.

It said a total of around 12,000 North Korean troops, including 500 officers and three generals, were already in Russia, and training was taking place on five military bases.

Russian deputy defence minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was appointed responsible for overseeing the training of North Korean military, the agency said.

The Kremlin has previously dismissed reports about the North’s troop deployment as “fake news”. But Russian president Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that it was Moscow’s business how to implement a partnership treaty with Pyongyang.

Vladimir Putin was asked about whether any North Korean troops were in Russia, which he neither confirmed nor denied. The US on Wednesday said that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations.

“Images are a serious thing, if there are images, then they reflect something,” he said when asked about satellite photos of troops.

Mr Putin noted that lawmakers in Moscow earlier in the day ratified a pact with North Korea on mutual military assistance as part of a “strategic partnership” with Pyongyang.

“We have never doubted that the North Korean leadership takes our agreements seriously. What and how we will do within the framework of this article (of the agreement) is our business,” he said.

Vladimir Putin closed a summit of the Brics bloc of developing economies last night, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods.”

The three-day summit in the city of Kazan was attended by leaders or representatives of 36 countries, highlighting the failure of US-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

The conflict came up repeatedly at the meeting, which saw the first visit to Russia from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in more than two years and drew an angry reaction from Kyiv.

Mr Guterres called for “a just peace” in Ukraine, in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions. He also urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.

At a news conference last night, Mr Putin was asked about former US president Donald Trump’s promise to end the fighting in Ukraine.

“What Mr Trump said recently, what I heard, (is) he spoke about the desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine,” Mr Putin said. “It seems to me that he said it sincerely. We certainly welcome statements of this kind, no matter who makes them.”