Ukraine-Russia war live: North Korean troops deployed to frontline will ‘surely return in body bags’, US says

One person was killed and six were injured after Russian strikes on buildings, buses and cars in Kherson over the past 24 hours.

Chief of the Kherson Regional State Administration Oleksandr Prokudin said on Facebook on Thursday: “Russian military targeted library and office premises and populated areas of the region, including damage to multi-storey buildings and 21 private buildings.

“The occupiers also [struck] garages, buses and private cars. Due to Russian aggression, one person died, six more got injured.”

Throughout the past day, Ukrainian Defense Forces said there were 145 recorded combat clashes at the frontline. They added their strikes had hit one Russian command post, two air defence systems, one artillery gun in firing position, two field ammunition depots, three clusters of enemy personnel and military equipment, and four enemy radar stations.

Russian troops attacked a strategic bridge across the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Estuary in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight, launching two ballistic Iskander missiles and eight guided missiles, said the Ukrainian military on Thursday.

The bridge has been a target several times over the past two years, and is an important railway and car connection in the region.

The Ukrainian military added that Russia used two ballistic missiles to attack the eastern town of Kramatorsk.

The air force shot down 17 out of 43 drones and two guided missiles launched by Russia overnight, it said, adding that 23 drones were “locationally lost”, likely due to electronic warfare and three more left Ukraine-controlled airspace.

All drones threatening the capital Kyiv were disabled by air defence.

Ukrainian forces have pushed into Toretsk recently, a US war think tank has said.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have advanced near Kupyansk, Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, and southwest of Donetsk City, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Wednesday.

An investigation by the BBC has found that Russia may be using drones to target civilians in the frontline city of Kherson.

Both Ukraine and Russia use drones to target military infrastructure.

Kherson’s military administration told the BBC that 30 civilians in the city have died due to Russian drone attacks since 1 July.

Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime.

The Independent was not able to independently verify these claims.

The Russian military has not responded to the BBC’s questions on the allegations, but they have consistently denied that they target civilians.

BBC Verify claimed they have examined six videos shared on both Ukrainian and Russian social media where evidence of these apparent drone attacks on civilians is visible.

Ukraine has named three North Korean generals who it claims have accompanied their troops to Russia.

In a statement to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Ukraine’s delegation said the generals are among at least 500 North Korean officers sent to Russia, reported Reuters.

The statement added that the troops will be formed into at least five formations of 2,000-3,000 soldiers each and integrated into Russian units to hide their presence.

Ukraine named Colonel General Kim Yong-bok, a senior general with command of special forces that South Korean intelligence claims have been deployed to Russia.

“This is a large and almost unprecedented deployment for the KPA,” said North Korea leadership expert with US-based Stimson Center Michael Madden, who believes General Kim Yong-bok is in Russia as a representative of Kim Jong Un.

The other generals are Colonel General Ri Changho, deputy chief of the general staff and head of the reconnaissance general bureau, and Major General Sin Kum-cheol, head of the main operational directorate.

A Russian guided bomb struck a high-rise apartment block on Wednesday evening in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, killing an 11-year-old child and injuring at least 29.

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram that the child had been pulled from under the rubble with severe head wounds and fractures, but did not survive, reported Reuters.

He added that the strike caused a fire and destroyed most of one entrance.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram: “Our partners can see what is happening every day. And in these conditions, every decision that is put off means, at the very least, dozens of lives and hundreds of Russian bombs used against Ukraine.”

Prosecutors plan to argue that a Massachusetts Air National Guard member who pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine should serve nearly 17 years in prison.

In a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, prosecutors said Jack Teixeira “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”

“As both a member of the United States Armed Forces and a clearance holder, the defendant took an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets — secrets that are vital to US national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas,” prosecutors wrote. “Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year.”

Teixeira’s attorneys will argue that US District Judge Indira Talwani should sentence him to 11 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced 12 November.

In their sentencing memorandum, they acknowledged that their client “made a terrible decision which he repeated over 14 months.”

Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in March to six counts of the willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act nearly a year after he was arrested in the most consequential national security leak in years.

The 22-year-old admitted that he illegally collected some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and shared them with other users on the social media platform Discord.