Ukraine-Russia latest: Trump ‘to call Putin’ as Biden plans final surge in military aid to Kyiv

Egisto Ott, a former Austrian intelligence official, has appeared in court for allegedly violating official secrecy laws, the first charges in a high-profile case linked to Russian espionage.

Mr Ott, who was detained for two months earlier this year, faces accusations of passing sensitive information to Russian intelligence services and to Jan Marsalek, a fugitive entrepreneur with alleged ties to the Kremlin.

The trial has drawn significant attention, particularly given its connection to the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), which emerged as the top party in Austria’s September elections for the first time.

Poland plans to invest 3 billion zlotys (£577 million) to boost ammunition production, according to a bill published late on Monday, aiming to ensure it has sufficient supplies in the event of an attack from Russia.

Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Poland has become Nato’s biggest spender on defence in relation to the size of its economy, with the 2025 budget allocating 4.7 per cent of gross domestic product for the purpose.

“The draft act aims to create opportunities to provide financing for activities aimed at increasing the capacity for ammunition production,” the bill says, with a particular need to expand large-caliber production to bolster the potential of the Polish Armed Forces.

The government aims to adopt the bill during the fourth quarter, according to its website.

Some Nato officials have said the Kremlin might be ready militarily to attack Nato countries in five to eight years’ time, once it has rebuilt its forces after the war in Ukraine. Moscow has regularly dismissed Western suggestions that it might consider an attack on Nato.

In September Maciej Idzik, a board member of the state-owned Polish Armaments Group (PGZ), told Reuters that Warsaw aimed to ramp up its production of 155 mm artillery rounds.

Foreign ministers from the Group of Seven democracies and three key allies said on Tuesday they were gravely concerned by the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia and the possibility they may be used in the war against Ukraine.

“The DPRK’s (North Korea) direct support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, besides showing Russia’s desperate efforts to compensate its losses, would mark a dangerous expansion of the conflict,” the ministers said in a statement.

Besides G7 members the United States, Japan, Italy, Britain, Germany, France and Canada, the statement was also signed by South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The ministers said they condemned “in the strongest possible terms” increased military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, including Russia’s “unlawful procurement” of North Korean ballistic missiles.

They said they were deeply concerned about the potential for any transfer of nuclear or ballistic missile-related technology to North Korea, and would work with international partners “for a coordinated response to this new development”.

Russia has rejected claims that it was behind a series of hoax bomb threats targeting polling stations in the United States on election day, as well as reports suggesting a Russian plot to plant incendiary devices on planes.

Moscow dismissed the accusations after the FBI revealed that multiple bomb threats had been made on Tuesday against voting locations in key battleground states, including Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

Many of these threats appeared to originate from email domains linked to Russia, raising suspicions of foreign interference, though no bombs were found at the sites.

In addition to the bomb hoaxes, US security officials indicated that parcels which exploded at logistics depots in Europe were allegedly part of a test for a potential Russian plot to place incendiary devices on cargo flights to the US.

Authorities suggested that these incidents could be a precursor to more serious attacks aimed at disrupting US-bound cargo traffic.

However, Russia categorically denied any involvement in these activities, calling the reports unfounded.

Russia has launched 4,300 Shahed-type attack drones and other drones on Ukraine over the past three months, Ukraine has said.

Kyiv claims their air defence destroyed 71% of them but 5% made direct hits.

In addition, the Air Force’s daily reports mark some of them as “disappeared from radar”, which means some of the drones were either subject to countermeasures by electronic warfare units or failed to reach their targets

North Korean troops engaged in clashes against Ukrainian forces that are fighting in the Russian Kursk region, the New York Timesreported late last night, citing an unnamed senior US official and an unnamed senior Ukrainian official.

The engagement was limited and likely meant to probe the Ukrainian lines for weaknesses, the Ukrainian official said. The Ukrainian official added that the North Korean troops fought together with Russia’s 810 Separate Naval Infantry Brigade.

The US official told the newspaper that a significant number of North Korean troops were killed.

The office of Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian defence ministry, the Russian defence ministry, the Pentagon and the US Department of State have not issued a comment on the report.

Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov confirmed the first clash, describing it as a “small-scale” skirmish, had taken place between Ukrainian and North Korean troops.

“Yes, I think so. It is (an) engagement,” Mr Umerov told South Korea’s KBS television in an interview broadcast yesterday, when asked if a clash had occurred. He said the engagement was small for now, but more are expected as the number of North Koreans deployed grows.

Ukrainian troops launched an incursion into Russia’s border Kursk region on 6 August, taking a number of settlements under control in the first such deployment onto the Russian territory since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine’s air defence units destroyed 38 Russian drones overnight, its air force said this morning.

Another 22 Russian drones were lost over the Ukrainian territory and its airspace, the air force said on Telegram, without providing further details.

The air force has said before that lost drones are usually intercepted by electronic warfare. The air force also said that Russia launched two missiles on the southern Odesa region late last night.