Ukraine-Russia live: Zelensky expects Putin to deploy North Korean troops on the frontline as soon as weekend

The US has said for the first time it had evidence that 3,000 North Korean troops were receiving training in Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine in “a very serious” escalation that would make them “legitimate military targets”.

Read the full report by The Independent’s Shweta Sharma:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff yesterday said that a full withdrawal of Russian troops, and not just peace talks, were essential to ending the war.

The chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was addressing an international meeting devoted to implementing a peace plan, one of several gatherings staged as a follow-up to last June’s world “peace summit” hosted by Switzerland.

“Don’t expect this war to end when the warring sides begin to talk to each other,” Mr Yermak told the gathering, according to the president’s website.

“Don’t be deceived. This war will end when the last soldier of the occupying army returns home.”

The gathering was attended in person in Kyiv and online by representatives of 56 countries and organisations.

Mr Yermak told the meeting that concerted international pressure on Russia should set a precedent.

“This will prove to the entire world that the pursuit of international conquests in the 21st century is immoral and senseless. Whatever has been seized will have to be returned to the rightful owners,” he was quoted as saying.

The international community, he said, had to prove stronger than any aggressor, “however strong that aggressor might be”.

The Ukrainian military could be defending attacks by North Korean troops as soon as Sunday or Monday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukrainian intelligence had determined that the North Korean military was ready to be deployed by Putin’s forces within days, Zelensky said, in what he described as an “obvious escalating move by Russia”.

He did not provide any details on where the troops might be deployed.

It comes after Russian president Vladimir Putin was asked about satellite photos of North Korean troops in Russia during the Brics summit. “Images are a serious thing, if there are images, then they reflect something,” he said.

The US said on Wednesday that Russia is training 3,000 North Korean troops to fight on Ukrainian soil.

Russian troops are advancing towards the town of Selydove in the eastern Donetsk region, a UK Defence Intelligence report has found.

The town is en route to the vital Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk, on a frontline which Putin’s forces are focussing much of their manpower.

Russian forces “almost certainly” advanced towards Selydove, the military report found.

“The town remains contested, with fighting likely continuing to take place within the town centre,” it added, according to European Pravda.

Since the beginning of October, Russia’s advance towards Pokrovsk has slowed significantly, the military added.

When Vahan Agayan goes to the polling station in Georgia’s parliamentary election Saturday, he says he and his wife will vote as directed to by officials of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Agayan has a sheep farm near the border with Armenia and Turkey, 135 kilometers (83 miles) west of — and a world away from — the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. There, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in a pre-election demonstration in favor of joining the European Union.

But in the mountainous Javakheti region, what Agayan wants most is stability.

The Kremlin has denied a Wall Street Journal report about regular contacts between Elon Musk and President Vladimir Putin.

“No, this is not true,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said that Putin had one contact with Musk – the world’s richest man – and it was before 2022.

The Journal said Musk had been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022. Peskov said the report was absolutely false.

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.”

Dutch intelligence has confirmed that Russia has deployed at least 1,500 troops from North Korea to fight in the Ukraine war, Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said Friday.

Moscow has not denied previous US claims that North Korea had sent troops to Russia, a move that the West is casting as a significant escalation of the war.

“We expect the troops will mainly be deployed in Kursk and consist of mainly special units from the North Korean army,” Brekelmans said, adding that the first deployment was a way for Russia to test the troops and to gauge international reaction.

Kursk is a Russian city near the Ukrainian border where Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion in August.

Ukrainian prosecutors on Friday said they had launched an investigation into North Korea’s support for Russia in the war as a possible crime of aggression.

By arming and supplying ground forces engaged in fighting against Ukraine, North Korean officials could face charges, the Prosecutor Generals told Reuters.

“We are documenting and collecting evidence of all possible aspects of such involvement as part of the core proceeding on the crime of aggression,” the office said in a statement.