Ukraine-Russia latest: North Korea prepares to send kamikaze drones and more troops to battlefield

Ukraine‘s security service has named a Russian general it suspects of ordering a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August and said he acted “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of” Reuters.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement on Friday that Colonel General Alexei Kim, a deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, approved the strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency’s journalists on Aug. 24.

In a statement posted on Telegram messenger the SBU said it was notifying Kim in absentia that he was an official suspect in its investigation into the strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a step in Ukrainian criminal proceedings that can later lead to charges.

In a separate, 15-page notice of suspicion, in which the SBU set out findings from its investigation, the agency said that the decision to fire the missile was made “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of the international news agency Reuters who were engaged in journalistic activities in Ukraine“.

The document, which was published on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, said that Kim had received intelligence that Reuters staff were staying in Kramatorsk. It added that Kim would have been “fully aware that the individuals were civilians and not participating in the armed conflict”.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in an emailed comment to Reuters that “the Russian military only strikes military infrastructure” in Ukraine.

A Russian delegation arrived in Tehran for a visit that includes a meeting with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Monday, as the two countries prepare to sign a comprehensive cooperation agreement.

Iran and Russia have been working on setting a date to complete an agreement, Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday, adding that the deal is set to be signed during a bilateral visit in January.

Russia has cultivated closer ties with Iran and other countries hostile towards the United States, such as North Korea, since the start of the Ukraine war.

The country’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in October that Moscow and Tehran intended to sign a deal which would include closer defence cooperation.

South Korea’s military said on Monday that it has detected signs of North Korea preparing to send more troops and weapons, including suicide drones, to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

North Korea has already provided 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers, and was seen preparing to produce more suicide drones to be shipped to Russia after leader Kim Jong Un guided a test last month, according to Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

“Suicide drones are one of the tasks that Kim Jong Un has focused on,” a JCS official said, adding that the North had expressed its intention to give them to Russia.

Such drones have been widely used in the Ukraine war, and Kim ordered a mass production of the aerial weapons and an update of military theory and education, citing intensifying global competition, state media reported.

Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have said there are around 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia. The JCS said at least 1,100 of them had been killed or wounded, in line with last week’s briefing by South Korea’s spy agency which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region.

US president-elect Donald Trump said Russian president Vladimir Putin has expressed his interest in a meeting him to discuss the Ukraine war.

“President Putin said that he wants to meet with me as soon as possible,” Mr Trump said during his remarks at Turning Point’s America Fest convention yesterday. “So we have to wait for this, but we have to end that war. That war is horrible, horrible,” he was quoted as saying by CNBC.

“The number of soldiers being killed...” Mr Trump said. “It’s a flat plane, and the bullets are going and there’s powerful bullets, powerful guns, and the only thing that’s going to stop them is a human body.”

Earlier, Mr Trump has claimed he could end the Ukraine war “in 24 hours” if he gets elected.

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 47 out of 72 Russia-launched drones across the country.

In a statement on Telegram this morning, it said that an additional 25 drones had not reached targets and were “locationally lost”.

Russia’s Gazprom said that it would send 42.1 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine this morning, a volume in line with recent days.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said he considered the sometimes harsh criticism of German chancellor Olaf Scholz by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to be unjustified, news wire DPA reported.

Although Germany has been a vital ally of Ukraine, its hesitation in providing long-range Taurus cruise missiles has been a source of frustration in Kyiv, which is battling a foe armed with a powerful array of long-range weaponry.

“I have often told Zelenskiy that he should stop criticising Olaf Scholz, because I think it is unfair,” DPA quoted Mr Rutte on Monday as saying in an interview.

Mr Rutte also said that he, unlike Mr Scholz, would supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles and would not set limits on their use.

“In general, we know that such capabilities are very important for Ukraine,”Mr Rutte said, adding that it was not up to him to decide what allies should deliver.

After a November telephone call by Mr Scholz with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin in November, Mr Zelensky said it had opened a Pandora’s box that undermined efforts to isolate the Russian leader and end the war in Ukraine with a “fair peace”.

Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian fuel depot for the second time in just over a week on Sunday, according to a senior Russian regional official, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow’s military.

The strikes came days after Russia launched sweeping attacks on Ukraine’s already battered energy grid, threatening to plunge thousands of homes into darkness as winter tightens its grip over the region, and as Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor nears the three-year mark.

A fire broke out at the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal in Russia’s southern Oryol region, local Gov. Andrey Klychkov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding Russian forces downed 20 drones targeting “fuel and energy infrastructure” in the province.

The Australian government is making urgent inquiries after a video on social media appeared to show a citizen captured by Russian authorities.

In the video, a 32-year-old man identified himself as Oscar Jenkins, a biology teacher from Australia. Mr Jenkins’s hands were bound by tape as he answered questions about his identity in English and broken Russian. In the footage circulating online, the man, dressed in military fatigue, could be seen being struck on his head with a cane, as he said: “I’m Australian…Oscar Jenkins. 32 years old … I study biology.”

“This is concerning news, and we’re working through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide support, including, for this gentleman, trying to ascertain the details and the facts which are there,” Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Monday morning.

The acting foreign affair minister Mark Dreyfus, meanwhile urged Russia to treat Mr Jenkins as per international laws.

“We urge the Russian government to fully adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law, including with respect to prisoners of war. Our immediate priority is understanding where Mr Jenkins is and confirming his wellbeing,” he said.