Ukraine-Russia war latest: At least seven dead after Moscow launches ‘largest missile attack’ in months

North Korea has supplied Russia with long-range rockets and artillery systems, Ukrainian intelligence assessment has found, amid reports of Pyongyang deploying 12,000 of its soldiers to Moscow to fight against Ukraine.

Pyongyang has provided 50 domestically produced 170mm M1989 self-propelled howitzers and 20 updated 240mm multiple launch rocket systems, Financial Times reported citing the assessment.

Some of the weapons have been moved to the border region of Kursk where Moscow has deployed 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers to retake the territory from Ukrainian troops. The Russian forces are facing difficulty in pushing back Ukraine’s cross-border incursion launched on 6 August.

Deployment of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s war against Ukraine is a “grave escalation” of the conflict, German chancellor Olaf Scholz told Vladimir Putin during their first phone call in nearly two years.

German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Mr Scholz urged Mr Putin in the hour-long call to withdraw his troops and end the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

The Kremlin said the conversation between the two leaders was “detailed and frank” on the situation in Ukraine.

Ukraine's air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on Kyiv, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said this morning.

After months spent occupying a swathe of territory in Russia in the wake of a daring summer assault, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed that Ukraine is now engaged against a force of 50,000 troops amassed by Vladimir Putin in the border Kursk region.

The Ukrainian incursion was the largest on Russian soil since the Second World War and succeeded in taking Moscow – and even Kyiv’s closest allies – by surprise.

Tom Watling and Andy Gregory report:

Russian forces have breached the outskirts of Ukraine’s northeastern city Kupiansk, part of a region it briefly held after first invading Ukraine, military officials said.

Moscow’s forces attacked the region in four waves and used soldiers disguised as Ukrainian troops but were repelled from the city by Kyiv’s forces, Ukraine’s General Staff said. But why does the control of Kupiansk, a significant rail hub in the area, matter?

Kupiansk was captured by Russian forces in the early days of the February 2022 invasion and then liberated by Ukraine in a counteroffensive months later.

Vladimir Putin’s forces deployed 15 pieces of hardware in their assault on Kupiansk, including tanks and armoured vehicles, as they attempt to expand offensive operations on a sprawling more-than-1,000km front, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Russian attack looked opportunistic and Kyiv appeared to have isolated and destroyed most of the Russian forces that penetrated the outskirts of Kupiansk, Pasi Paroinen, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group, said.

“However, a penetration like that certainly signals confusion and weakness in Ukrainian defences in that area, which could prompt the local Russian commanders to increase their efforts to squeeze or cut off the Ukrainian salient,” he added.

He said the coming days would likely indicate whether the Kremlin was going to react to this by ramping up attacks there further.

Ukraine is fighting to liberate all territory captured by Russia in the last decade, and any claim that Kyiv is shifting its focus in the war to prioritise security over land is false, the country’s defence minister has said.

“Territorial integrity is part of our values,” Rustem Umerov told a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart in Oslo.

When asked about reports that Ukraine is shifting its focus in the war, Mr Umerov said this was false and part of Russian propaganda efforts.

“Our priority is still to protect people, protect the nation, to liberate people from almost 10 years of temporary occupation, so Crimea and Donbas [are] part of Ukraine,” he said, adding that people living in territories held by Russia are all waiting to be liberated.

A French military task force with a festive name — “Champagne” — is wrapping up a mission that’s no party: Training a whole new brigade of several thousand Ukrainian troops who will be joining the fight against Russia‘s invasion armed with France-supplied tanks, artillery canons and other heavy weaponry.

The approaching return to Ukraine of the “Anne of Kyiv” brigade, after more than two months of intense military training in eastern and southern France, comes at another critical juncture in the almost three-year war.

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Vladimir Putin has told Germany’s Olaf Scholz that Russia is ready to look at energy deals if Berlin is interested, the Kremlin has said, following their first phone conversation since December 2022.

A readout from the Kremlin claimed: “It was emphasised that Russia has always strictly fulfilled its treaty and contractual obligations in the energy sector and is ready for mutually beneficial cooperation if the German side shows interest in this.”

Germany was heavily reliant on Russian gas before the war, but direct shipments ceased when the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea were blown up in 2022.

Germany and other European Union countries have imposed successive waves of sanctions on Russia over the war and taken steps to wean themselves off their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

Hungary’s Viktor Orban has claimed that European Union sanctions against Russia will “destroy” the bloc’s economy.

Mr Orban, widely seen as having the warmest relations with the Kremlin in the EU, has broken with the majority of European leaders and vocally opposed such sanctions.

Speaking on state radio on Friday, the hard-right leader claimed the EU’s sanctions regime “should be reviewed, because with such a policy of sanctions, energy prices will not come down”.

He added: “It will be painful for those who argued for sanctions. Not for us, because we will see this as a victory, but the other camp has to change because otherwise it will destroy the European economy.”