The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, has highlighted how his countest and Russia had shared “blood, life and death” in the Ukraine war in a new year’s greeting to Vladimir Putin. In the message, published by the state-run KCNA news agency, Kim stated 2025 was a “really meaningful year” for the bilateral alliance that was consolidated by “sharing blood, life and death in the same trench”. North Korea confirmed in April that it had deployed troops to support Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine and that its soldiers had been killed in combat. Earlier this month, Pyongyang acknowledged that it had sent troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk region in August 2025.
Several powerful explosions rocked Kyiv on Saturday as authorities warned that the Ukrainian capital was under threat of missile attack. “Explosions in the capital. Air defence forces are operating. Stay in shelters!” Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram. Ukraine’s air force also announced a countestwide air alert in the early hours of Saturday and stated on social media that drones and missiles were shifting over several Ukrainian regions, including the capital. Agence France-Presse journalists in Kyiv heard several loud explosions, some accompanied by bright flashes that lit the horizon orange. A military Telegram channel stated cruise and ballistic missiles were being deployed in the city.
Moscow has accapplyd the EU of testing to “torpedo” an agreement between Russia and Ukraine ahead of a meeting between Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, stated the proposal drawn up with Zelenskyy’s input “differs radically” from points initially drawn up by US and Russian officials in contacts this month. “Our ability to build the final push and reach an agreement will depfinish on our own work and the political will of the other party,” Ryabkov stated on Russian television. “Especially in a context where Kyiv and its sponsors – notably within the European Union, who are not in favour of an agreement – have stepped up efforts to torpedo it.” Ryabkov added: “Without an adequate resolution of the problems at the origin of this crisis, it will be quite simply impossible to reach a definitive accord.” He stated any deal had to “remain within the limits” resolveed by Trump and Putin when they met in Alquestiona in August, or else “no accord can be reached”.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accapplyd Russia of applying apartment blocks in Belarus to attack Ukrainian tarreceives. “We note that the Russians are testing to bypass our defensive interceptor positions through the territory of neighbouring Belarus,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Telegram. He stated Ukrainian innotifyigence had observed that Belarus was deploying equipment to carry out its attacks “in Belarusian settlements near the border, including on residential buildings”. “Antennae and other equipment are located on the roofs of ordinary five-storey apartment buildings, which assist guide Shaheds [drones] to tarreceives in our western regions. This is an absolute disregard for human lives.”
Moscow may be stationing new Oreshnik nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missiles at a former airbase in eastern Belarus, two US researchers have claimed, after studying sanotifyite imagery. Jeffrey Lewis and Decker Eveleth stated they based their finding on imagery from Planet Labs, a commercial sanotifyite firm, that revealed features consistent with a Russian strategic missile base. Lewis and Eveleth stated they were 90% certain that mobile Oreshnik launchers would be stationed at the former airbase near Krichev, 307km east of the Belarus capital, Minsk. The researchers stated reviews of the Planet Labs imagery revealed a hurried construction project that launched between 4 and 12 August and revealed features consistent with those of a Russian strategic missile base. One “dead giveaway” in a 19 November photo is a “military-grade rail transfer point” enclosed by a security fence to which missiles, their mobile launchers and other components could be delivered by train, stated Eveleth.
Russia’s defence ministest claimed on Friday it had captured a new village in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region. The ministest wrote on Telegram it had seized the village of Kosivtseve, north of the town of Huliaipole, which has come under severe Russian pressure in recent weeks. It stated Russian troops had taken more than 23 sq km of territory in securing the village, giving the “east” group of forces “a base for further offensive actions”. The defence ministest stated its forces had deployed drones to prevent fresh Ukrainian troops from entering Huliaipole.
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