Russia supplied anti-air missiles to North Korea, Seoul says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was working on developing new air defense systems after Russia hit Ukraine with a new medium-range missile.

"The Minister of Defense of Ukraine is already holding meetings with our partners on new air defense systems — the kind of systems that can protect lives from new risks," he said in his nightly video address.

Zelenskyy called for a "serious response" to the missile launch so that Russian President Vladimir Putin "afraid of expanding the war and feel the real consequences of his actions."

He referred to Russia's missile launch as "a mockery of the position of states such as China, states of the Global South, some leaders who call for restraint every time."

China and several other states have not sanctioned Russia and have called for a negotiated settlement to the war.

Zelenskyy said that using another country to "test new weapons for terror" was "undoubtedly an international crime."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would continue testing its new Oreshnik hypersonic missiles during a televised meeting with military chiefs.

He said that Russia would begin "serial production" of the missile and praised the "particular strength of this weapon and its power."

"We will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and character of the security threats posted to Russia," Putin said.

It comes a day after Putin said Russia had fired an Oreshnik missile at a Ukrainian military facility.

Russia has said that it is making the launches in response to the US and the UK authorizing Kyiv to strike targets within Russian territory using long-range missiles.

A man pleaded guilty to an arson attack on a Ukrainian-linked business in London.

Prosecutors say the Jake R. carried out the attack on behalf of the Russia's Wagner paramilitary group. The group is classified as a terrorist organization in the UK.

The man is one of six people charged over a March 20 fire at an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, which required 60 firefighters to extinguish. The target was a Ukrainian-owned business, according to prosecutors.

Fellow defendant Dylan E. previously admitted to aggravated arson. Prosecutors allege that he was in contact with a Wagner handler and orchestrated the attack.

Wagner fighters have been involved in fighting in Ukraine and are also present in Belarus and several African countries.

Russian forces are advancing swiftly on Ukraine's eastern frontline, the AFP news agency cited a Ukrainian military source as saying.

Moscow's troops were pushing forward by "200-300 meters a day" near the city of Kurakhove in the eastern Donetsk region, the source said.

The source described said that the situation around the town of Pokrovsk was "worse." Pokrovsk is a critical supply hub that lies at the crossroads of Ukraine's most important rail routes.

Russia claimed to have annexed the entirety of the Donetsk region in November 2022. It has seen some of the fiercest fighting in the war.

 

A security guard working at the United States embassy in Norway has been arrested on suspicion of espionage on behalf of Russia and Iran, police said.

The man, who was not identified, was remanded in custody for four weeks and is set to spend the first week in isolation.

Norway's domestic spy agency PST said the man was arrested at home on Wednesday.

He was detained on suspicion of having damaged national security with his intelligence-related activity.

Citing the arrest warrant, Norway's public broadcaster NRK said police found records of the man's assignment dialogue with someone who was said to be guiding his espionage activity, 

The man has admitted to collecting and sharing information with Russian and Iranian authorities, the broadcaster reported.

Thomas Blom, a lawyer for PST, told reporters the accused man was cooperating and talking to officers and that a "large" amount of digital material had been confiscated.

The accused's lawyer, John Christian Elden, said his client had explained about his contact with intelligence agents from Russia and Iran, but does not plead guilty of espionage.

Dozens of people have been arrested all over Europe on suspicion of spying for the Kremlin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. German spy chiefs recently issued a warning about the espionage threat.

Russia has again attacked the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with at least one missile, the Ukrainian air force said. 

It was not yet clear what type of missile was used in the new attack, which comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had fired a new medium-range missile at the city on Thursday.

In a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian air force said a projectile was flying at high speed toward Dnipro. Explosions were heard in the city, public broadcaster Suspilne reported. There was no immediate word on damage or casualties. 

Dnipro is home to the missile manufacturer Pivdenmash.

Russia said it had captured another village in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region near the Ukrainian town of Kurakhove, where Moscow's forces are closing in after months of steady advances.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a daily briefing that it had seized the frontline village of Novodmytrivka, about 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Kurakhove.

NATO chief Mark Rutte will visit US President-elect Donald Trump at his residence in Florida, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf first reported.

The German news agency DPA cited alliance sources saying that the meeting would include discussions on Russia's war against Ukraine and defense spending.

During the election campaign, Trump claimed that he could end Russia's war of aggression in 24 hours and demanded that all allies spend 3% of their gross domestic product on defense in the future. 

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, is widely seen as one of the most successful EU leaders in dealing with Trump during his first term as US president.

Sweden will not be cowed by Russia's provocations, Defence Minister Pal Jonson said after President Vladimir Putin suggested strikes on Western countries supplying weapons to Ukraine.

The Swedish minister's comments came as he announced "substantial funding" for Ukraine to purchase long-range missiles and drones.

"The Russian escalation and provocation that we've been noticing recently is an attempt to scare us from supporting Ukraine, and that will fail. This will not happen," Jonson told reporters at a joint press conference in Stockholm with Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov.

"Supporting Ukraine is both the right thing to do and it's a smart thing to do, and it's an investment into our own security, because (Ukraine's) security is also our security," he said.

Jonson added that Ukraine has the full right under international law to defend itself inside and outside its territory, and that Sweden is glad to help develop its ability to produce long-range missiles and also long-range attack drones.

Ukraine's parliament has canceled Friday's session, lawmakers said, citing the risk of a Russian missile attack on the district of Kyiv where government buildings are located.

"The hour of questions to the government has been canceled," Yevgenia Kravchuk, a ruling party lawmaker, told the AFP news agency. "There are signals of an increased risk of attacks on the government district in the coming days."

Three Ukrainian lawmakers also confirmed to the Associated Press that the previously scheduled parliamentary session was canceled due to the continued threat of Russian missile attacks.

The cancellation came after Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia had struck the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a new medium-range hypersonic missile in response to the Ukrainian use of Western missiles against targets in Russia.

Earlier this week, warnings of large-scale missile attacks prompted the US and other embassies in Ukraine to close for the day on Wednesday.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has asked the NATO-Ukraine Council to meet following the deployment of a new Russian intermediate-range missile. 

Ambassadors from NATO countries and Ukraine will meet on Tuesday to discuss the strike on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow had hit Ukraine with a new generation of intermediate-range missiles, which he suggested were capable of delivering a nuclear payload. 

A spokeswoman for NATO said: "Deploying this capability will neither change the course of the conflict nor deter NATO allies from supporting Ukraine."

Russia's use of an experimental hypersonic missile to strike Ukraine was a "terrible escalation" in the war, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a speech.

The deployment of the new weapon showed "how dangerous this war is", Scholz said. "That (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has now also used a medium-range missile to strike Ukrainian territory is a terrible escalation."

This also applies to the deployment of North Korean soldiers on the Russian side, "who are now being used in this war and are dying for Putin's imperial dream, " he said, adding that Germany is a staunch supporter of Ukraine. 

Scholz, however, also emphasized that no Taurus missiles will be delivered to Ukraine. He said a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia must be avoided.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrot vowed to continue to "do whatever is necessary" to help Ukraine fight Russia after Vladimir Putin threatened to strike Ukraine's Western allies.

The Russian president used a new ballistic missile against Ukraine on Thursday, claiming the use of the weapon was in response to the UK and US allowing missiles they supplied to Ukraine to be used to attack targets in Russia.

"We consider ourselves entitled to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities," they wrote in the British i newspaper.

Lammy and Barrot said that by launching his illegal and unprovoked full-scale war of aggression in Ukraine 1,000 days ago this week, Putin was attempting to rewrite the international order.

"The UK and France will not let him do so. Together with our allies, we will do everything that is necessary to put Ukraine in the best position to achieve a just and lasting peace," they said.

Russia has supplied anti-aircraft missiles to North Korea in exchange for North Korean troops supporting Russia's war against Ukraine, a top South Korean official has said.

"It has been identified that equipment and anti-aircraft missiles aimed at reinforcing Pyongyang's vulnerable air defense system have been delivered to North Korea," Shin Won-sik, Seoul's top security advisor, told TV broadcaster SBS.

According to Shin, Russia has also provided various forms of economic aid to North Korea.

The US, South Korea, and others say North Korea has sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia to support its war against Ukraine.

Seoul and Washington have expressed concern about possible Russian transfers of sensitive nuclear and missile technology to North Korea.

Separately, the UK-based nonprofit research group Open Source Centre said North Korea likely received more than 1 million barrels of oil from Russia over an eight-month period this year in violation of UN sanctions.

It cited satellite images showing more than a dozen North Korean oil tankers making a total of 43 trips to an oil terminal in Russian ports over the past eight months.

Under UN Security Council restrictions imposed over North Korea's nuclear weapons and missile development, Pyongyang is limited to importing 500,000 barrels of refined products per year.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its air defense systems destroyed and intercepted 23 Ukrainian drones overnight over the western Bryansk, Kaluga and Kursk regions.

The ministry had no reports of damage or casualties. The Bryansk and Kursk Oblasts border on Ukraine, and the Kaluga Oblast is located between the Bryansk Oblast and Moscow.