Ukraine-Russia war live: Nato chief says North Korean troops in Kursk as Putin issues long-range arms warning

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 21 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning.

Of these, 13 drones were destroyed over the border Belgorod region, six over the Bryansk region, also bordering Ukraine, while the remaining two were destroyed over the Voronezh and Kursk regions each, the ministry said.

Vladimir Putin has denied having any contact with former US president Donald Trump.

Speaking after the BRICS summit in Kazan on Thursday (24 October), the Russian president said: “This is something that has been constantly discussed for more than one year.

“At one time, we were accused of this, and Trump himself of being somehow connected with Russia. Then, as a result of an investigation in the United States itself, everyone came to the conclusion, including in the Congress, as far as I know, that this was complete nonsense, that nothing like this had ever happened.

“It didn’t happen before, and it doesn’t happen now.”

Volodymyr Zelensky said cooperation within the ‘Ukraine plus Northern Europe’ format is gaining speed with more steps that can increase pressure on Russia expected in the coming week.

“They understand that it is necessary to create problems for the aggressor, so that Russia loses the opportunity to spoil the life of the world,” Mr Zelensky said in his nightly address last night.

“We will talk (in the coming week) with the ‘Nordics’ about new fundamental steps that can increase the pressure on Russia for this war and for the sake of honest diplomacy,” he said.

The five Nordic countries - Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland - are all now Nato countries and have all been staunch supporters of Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.

Russia lost nearly 200 soldiers, with 80 confirmed fatalities in Ukraine’s east where a fierce battle is underway, officials said.

Russian forces made 27 attempts to breach Ukrainian defences on the Pokrovsk front near Myroliubivka, Promin, Krutyi Yar, Vyshneve and Selydove but were met with strong resistance, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said.

Around 189 Russian soldiers on this front have been killed or injured, adding to Russia’s losses, the military officials said in a late night update.

In the past 24 hours, 142 combat clashes took place on the frontline and the most intense fighting was reported from Pokrovsk and Kurakhove fronts, with additional activity of Russian troops on the Kupiansk, Lyman and Vremivka fronts, the military officials said.

Russian forces blocked another cross-border incursion by Ukrainian troops into south-western Russia, a local official claimed.

An “armed group” attempted to breach the border between Ukraine and Russia’s Bryansk region yesterday but was beaten back, local governor Aleksandr Bogomaz said.

The Russian local official did not specify whether Ukrainian soldiers carried out the attack but claimed the situation was “stable and under control” by Russia’s forces in the evening.

Responsibility for previous incursions into Russia’s Belgorod and Bryansk regions has been claimed by two murky groups: the Russian Volunteer Corps and the Freedom of Russia Legion.

Bryansk region neighbours Kursk province, where Ukraine launched a surprise push on 6 August that rattled the Kremlin and constituted the largest attack on Russia since the second World War.

A high-level delegation from South Korea will brief the North Atlantic Council about North Korea’s troop deployment to Russia today, Nato has said, after the US expressed grave concern over the possible use of the troops against Ukraine.

“Ambassadors from Nato’s Indo-Pacific partners – including Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea – have been invited to attend,” the military alliance added. The North Atlantic Council is Nato’s main decision-making body.

Ukrainian military intelligence said on Thursday that about 12,000 North Korean troops, including 500 officers and three generals, were already in Russia, and training was taking place on five military bases.

Speaking on the same day, Russian president Vladimir Putin did not deny that North Korean troops were in Russia. But he said it was Moscow’s business how to implement a treaty with Pyongyang that includes a mutual defence clause to aid each other against external aggression.

Several people were injured overnight in Russia’s multi-wave air attacks on the Ukrainian northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian military officials said early today.

Two people were hospitalised late yesterday after Russia hit the city of Kharkiv – the administrative centre of the wider Kharkiv region - with precision guided bombs and damaged several residential buildings, the city’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

There were more attacks on the city later in the night, Terekhov said, partially damaging several buildings.

At least four more people suffered various injuries in the Kharkiv region later in the night after Russia launched more attacks, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram.

In an attack on the city of Chuhuiv, a residential building was damaged, Syniehubov said. He added there were no injuries in that attack.

Donald Trump told podcaster Joe Rogan he would be able to negotiate the end of the war in Ukraine if he was elected.

Asked how he would avoid the course of WW3, he said: “I know both very well. If I told you exactly what I would do I could never get the deal done.” “I believe as President-elect I would get that war stopped and stopped fast.

“We have tremendous power in the US. I stopped other wars just by using tariffs.”

The US has joined Ukraine and South Korea in confirming reports of North Korea dispatching troops, estimated to be in the thousands, to aid Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Russian forces are making swift and “significant tactical advances” into the eastern Ukrainian city of Selydove, war monitors have said.

Open source data suggests Russian forces advanced in September at their fastest rate since March 2022, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia’s Kursk region.

Tom Watling reports: