Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin open to peace talks in Slovakia as reports claim North Korean soldier captured

Russia has declared a federal emergency on Thursday over an oil spill caused by two Russian tankers in the Black Sea, the Emergencies Ministry said.

The tankers were hit by a storm on December 15, causing one split to in half and the other run aground.

The resulting spill has coated sandy beaches at and around Anapa, a popular resort, and caused serious problems for wildlife including seabirds, dolphins and porpoises.

More than 10,000 people have been trying to clear it up.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has said he would be open to peace talks with Ukraine in Slovakia "if it comes to that".

Mr Putin said Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico, who this week visited the Kremlin, had offered his country as a location for negotiations as the war in Ukraine nears the three-year mark.

The Russian president said the Slovakian authorities "would be happy to provide their own country as a platform for negotiations".

"We are not opposed, if it comes to that. Why not? Since Slovakia takes such a neutral position," Mr Putin said, adding he was resolved to end the conflict in Ukraine, which started with a land, air and sea invasion of Russia's smaller neighbour in February 2022.

South Korean intelligence services have claimed that Ukraine had captured a wounded North Korean soldier fighting for Russia, Korean broadcaster YTN reported.

It marks the first time a North Korean has been taken by Ukrainian forces since Pyongyang sent thousands of troops to help Russia in the fighting in the Kursk region.

"Through real-time information sharing with an allied country's intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured," South Korea's National Intelligence Service said in a statement.

North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia's Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Kyiv's military intelligence claimed on Thursday.

The intelligence agency, known by its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units. It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and even shortages of drinking water.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops had been killed and wounded in the fighting in Kursk. It marked the first estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that North Korea had sent over 10,000 troops to help the Russian war effort.

The casualty disclosure came as the Joe Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before president-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.

Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, dealing a significant blow to Russia's prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine, where they were pressing a slow-moving offensive.

The Russian army has been able to reclaim some territory in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, but has failed to fully dislodge them.

China's president Xi Jinping will visit Russia in 2025, Russia's state-run RIA news agency quoted Moscow's ambassador to Beijing as saying early on Friday.

"As for concrete bilateral events, I can say that the appropriate plans are actively being drawn up," ambassador Igor Morgulov told RIA.

"What can be said that is no secret, in terms of priority, is that the chairman of the People's Republic of China is expected in Russia next year."

China hasn't confirmed the visit yet.

Mr Putin visited China in February 2022, proclaiming a "no limits" partnership days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. He was in Beijing again last May, after his re-election by a landslide, welcoming a "new era" of relations focusing on opposition to US policy.

The Kremlin has sought to dismiss reports that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s wife is seeking a divorce, after the couple were forced to flee to Russia.

Ukraine’s postage stamps have become symbols of resistance and resilience during the war, using bold and sometimes provocative designs to boost morale and fund essential causes, the BBC reported.

Notable examples include a stamp featuring a soldier flipping off a Russian warship, which became iconic after the ship’s sinking, and others depicting a Ukrainian tractor towing a Russian tank or the mine-sniffing dog Patron.

Oscar Young from the UK-based stamp dealers and auctioneers Stanley Gibbons describes Ukraine’s war-focused approach to stamp design as highly unconventional.

“Generally stamps are artistic and polite, but to go out your way and be quite rude, placing profanity and being very gesturous on stamps - that is quite unique to these particular issues,” he told the BBC.

Half a million were left without heating and one person was killed as Russia launched more than 70 missiles at Kharkiv.

Yet 2025 will almost certainly be the year when the war ends – and it will not be the unmitigated disaster for Ukraine that seemed likely even a few months ago.

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