Ukraine-Russia latest: Zelensky accuses North Korea of sending troops to Russia as he seeks support from allies

For the first time in 48 days, Russia did not launch any Shahed drone attacks at Ukraine overnight from Sunday going into Monday.

The Ukrainian Air Force did not comment on why there was a sudden lull in drone attacks from the Russians, who launched 1,300 Shahed kamikaze drones in September according to the Kyiv Independent.

Yurii Ihnat, acting Head of the Communications Department of the Air Force Command, said earlier this month that Russian forces were increasingly using drones of an unspecified type, which have been frequently downed by Ukrainian electronic warfare systems.

The US is ready to talk to Russia, China and North Korea to address security issues, president Joe Biden has said.

Speaking in the Nobel Peace Prize winners’ congratulatory statement, Biden said it is vital to move towards the day that the world can be completely and permanently free of nuclear weapons.

He said the US is ready to negotiate with Russia, China and North Korea “without preconditions” to diminish the nuclear threat, Ukrainska Prava reported.

Biden said: “There is no benefit to our nations or the world to forestall progress on reducing nuclear arsenals. Reducing the nuclear threat is important not despite the dangers of today’s world but precisely because of them.

“These nuclear risks erode the norms and agreements we have worked collectively to put in place and run counter to the vital work of today’s Nobel Laureates."

It came after Japanese nuclear bombing survivors’ organisation Nihon Hidankyo won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts in pushing for a nuclear free world and demonstrating that nuclear weapons must not be used.

Russian forces will have the capacity to attack NATO by the end of this decade, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service said on Monday.

“Russian forces should be in a position to launch an attack on NATO by the end of this decade at the latest,” Dr Bruno Kahl, Bundesnachrichtendienstes (BND) chief, told a parliamentary committee in Berlin.

We’ll bring you more detail on his comments as they come.

Russian attacks on Ukraine have killed five people and injured eight others in the past day, regional authorities confirmed this morning.

Four people were killed in the region of Donetsk, after attacks on gthe town of Chasiv Yar anf the villages of Zvanivka and Vyshneve, according to the region’s governor. Three more people were killed in the region.

One person was killed and four were injured in the Kherson region, after putin’s forces targeted eight settlements, including the regional capital of Kherson, according to governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Three high-rise buildings, six houses, gas pipelines and a warehouse were all damaged in the region, Prokudin added.

Friedrich Merz, an opposition candidate for German chancellor, says he is open to supplying Ukraine with Taurus long-range missiles as the current government refuses to do so.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz is said to fear that Ukraine would use Taurus missiles to strike politically sensitive targets in Russia - which could throw Germany into hostilities with Russia.

But Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - the party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel - says he would consider supplying the missiles under certain conditions.

First, there should be an appeal to Russia to stop striking civilian targets in Ukraine.

If Putin refuses, Ukraine should be free to use all weapons delivered by Germany however they please.

"And the second step would be to supply the Taurus missiles. Then it is up to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to decide how far he wants to escalate this war," Merz said according to N-TV.

Taurus is a German-Swedish cruise missile which has a range of over 500 kilometres (310 miles).

A Russian Tu-134 military plane was set on fire at a military airfield in the Orenburg region overnight between Saturday anf Sunday, Ukraine said.

The aircraft is used to “transport the leadership of the Russian defence ministry”, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR).

The plane burned to the ground at the Orenburg-2 military airfield, around 1,250 kilometres (780 miles) from the front line in Ukraine.

HUR has not claimed responsibility for the incident, but in sharing footage of the fire it said: "Every crime against the Ukrainian people will be duly punished,” the Kyiv Independent reported.

Ukraine has previously carried out strikes against airbases belonging to Russia’s air force.

A Ukrainian refugee says she is living in a “surreal nightmare” after she was refused permission to bring her two children to the UK.

Pressure is mounting on ministers to open a family reunion pathway for Ukrainians with temporary immigration status, after the rules were changed without warning in February. Charities say that the Home Office’s “restrictive rules and poor decision-making” are “tearing families apart”.

Maria Kondratska, who arrived in Britain just months before Russia’s full-scale invasion, is now appealing on human rights grounds after the Home Office refused her application for her son and daughter, aged 11 and 15, to be given refuge with her in Britain.

Andy Gregory reports:

Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, a 27-year-old award-winning reporter, died in Russian detention last month, confirmed Ukrainian authorities.

“I have official documentation from the Russian side confirming the death of Ukrainian journalist Victoria Roshchyna, who was illegally deprived of her liberty by Russia,” Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said in a statement.

“We have every reason to believe that her death was either the result of a deliberate murder or the result of the cruel treatment and violence to which she was subjected during her time in Russian captivity,” Ukrainian journalists and media professionals said in a statement condemning her death, reported CNN.

BBC director-general Tim Davie will warn that the retreat of its World Service due to funding cuts has helped Russia and China broadcast “unchallenged propaganda”.

On Monday afternoon, in a speech at the Future Resilience Forum, a non-partisan meeting attended by international political figures, Mr Davie will discuss the global importance of the BBC World Service, which operates across more than 40 languages.

While addressing the war in Ukraine and unrest in the Middle East, Mr Davie is expected to say: “This is a critical moment of challenge for stability and democracy worldwide.”

Report: