Russia Ukraine war current: Putin does not deny that North Korea is stationed in the war, while Kiev says that soldiers are already in Kursk

Ukrainian military intelligence said the first Russian-trained North Korean units were deployed to the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces carried out a major incursion in August.

“The first units of the DPRK military trained at the eastern Russian military training areas have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In particular, their presence was registered in the Kursk region on October 23, 2024,” said a statement from Ukrainian intelligence.

A total of around 12,000 North Korean soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals, are already in Russia and are being trained at five military bases.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov has been appointed in charge of overseeing the training of the North Korean military, the agency said.

The Kremlin had previously dismissed reports about the northern troop build-up as “fake news”. But Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that it was up to Moscow to implement a partnership agreement with Pyongyang.

Vladimir Putin was asked whether there were North Korean troops in Russia, which he neither confirmed nor denied. The United States announced Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations.

“Images are a serious thing, if there are images then they reflect something,” he said when asked about satellite photos of troops.

Mr. Putin noted that lawmakers in Moscow had earlier in the day ratified a pact with North Korea on mutual military assistance as part of a “strategic partnership” with Pyongyang.

“We have never doubted that the North Korean leadership takes our agreements seriously. What and how we will do within the framework of this article (the agreement) is our business,” he said.

Vladimir Putin concluded a summit of the BRIC bloc of developing countries last night, praising its role as a counterweight to what he called the West's “perverted methods.”

The three-day summit in the city of Kazan was attended by leaders or representatives of 36 countries, underscoring the failure of U.S.-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.

The conflict came up repeatedly at the meeting, where UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Russia for the first time in more than two years, drawing an angry response from Kiev.

Mr. Guterres called for “a just peace” in Ukraine in accordance with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions. He also called for an immediate end to fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.

At a press conference last night, Mr Putin was asked about former US President Donald Trump's promise to end fighting in Ukraine.

“What Mr. Trump said recently and what I heard is that he spoke of the desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine,” Putin said. “It seems to me that he said it sincerely. We definitely welcome statements of this kind, regardless of who they come from.”

According to regional authorities, at least six people were killed and ten injured in Russian attacks on eastern Ukraine yesterday.

Ten people were injured in an attack with thermobaric munitions on the city of Kupiansk in the northeastern Kharkiv region, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. A woman who was hospitalized in serious condition after the attack later died, he said.

“The enemy struck near a shop and the city market,” Mr. Syniehubov said in an initial statement.

He later added that a two-story retail building was damaged, as well as a dozen kiosks and windows of nearby homes. Russia occupied Kupiansk in the early days of its invasion in 2022, but was driven out by a lightning-fast Ukrainian counteroffensive in September of that year.

In recent months, Moscow forces have slowly moved back toward the city and are now less than 4 km (2.5 miles) from its northern edge, according to open-source maps.

Three people were killed in a Russian shelling later in the day around the strategic hub of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donetsk region, Governor Vadym Filashkin said on Telegram.

Mr. Filashkin later said on Facebook that a Russian attack on a branch of the Nova Poshta delivery service killed two people in Oleksiyevo-Druzhkiva, near the frontline towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka.

Russian troops have increased their advance towards Pokrovsk in recent months and have come within 8 km of its outskirts.