Ukraine battle briefing: Kim Jong-un celebrates sharing ‘blood, life and demise’ with Russia | Ukraine

The North Korean chief, Kim Jong-un, has highlighted how his nation and Russia had shared “blood, life and demise” within the Ukraine battle in a brand new 12 months’s greeting to Vladimir Putin. Within the message, revealed by the state-run KCNA information company, Kim mentioned 2025 was a “actually significant 12 months” for the bilateral alliance that was consolidated by “sharing blood, life and demise in the identical trench”. North Korea confirmed in April that it had deployed troops to help Russia’s army marketing campaign in opposition to Ukraine and that its troopers had been killed in fight. Earlier this month, Pyongyang acknowledged that it had despatched troops to clear mines in Russia’s Kursk area in August 2025.

A number of highly effective explosions rocked Kyiv on Saturday as authorities warned that the Ukrainian capital was below risk of missile assault. “Explosions within the capital. Air defence forces are working. Keep in shelters!” Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, wrote on Telegram. Ukraine’s air pressure additionally introduced a national air alert within the early hours of Saturday and mentioned on social media that drones and missiles had been shifting over a number of Ukrainian areas, together with the capital. Agence France-Presse journalists in Kyiv heard a number of loud explosions, some accompanied by vivid flashes that lit the horizon orange. A army Telegram channel mentioned cruise and ballistic missiles had been being deployed within the metropolis.

Moscow has accused the EU of attempting to “torpedo” an settlement between Russia and Ukraine forward of a gathering between Zelenskyy and Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday. Russia’s deputy international minister, Sergei Ryabkov, mentioned the proposal drawn up with Zelenskyy’s enter “differs radically” from factors initially drawn up by US and Russian officers in contacts this month. “Our potential to make the ultimate push and attain an settlement will rely upon our personal work and the political will of the opposite get together,” Ryabkov mentioned on Russian tv. “Particularly in a context the place Kyiv and its sponsors – notably throughout the European Union, who are usually not in favour of an settlement – have stepped up efforts to torpedo it.” Ryabkov added: “With out an satisfactory decision of the issues on the origin of this disaster, it is going to be fairly merely not possible to achieve a definitive accord.” He mentioned any deal needed to “stay throughout the limits” fastened by Trump and Putin once they met in Alaska in August, or else “no accord will be reached”.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of utilizing condominium blocks in Belarus to assault Ukrainian targets. “We notice that the Russians are attempting to bypass our defensive interceptor positions by means of the territory of neighbouring Belarus,” the Ukrainian president wrote on Telegram. He mentioned Ukrainian intelligence had noticed that Belarus was deploying tools to hold out its assaults “in Belarusian settlements close to the border, together with on residential buildings”. “Antennae and different tools are positioned on the roofs of abnormal five-storey condominium buildings, which assist information Shaheds [drones] to targets in our western areas. That is an absolute disregard for human lives.”

Moscow could also be stationing new Oreshnik nuclear-capable hypersonic ballistic missiles at a former airbase in jap Belarus, two US researchers have claimed, after finding out satellite tv for pc imagery. Jeffrey Lewis and Decker Eveleth mentioned they based mostly their discovering on imagery from Planet Labs, a industrial satellite tv for pc agency, that confirmed options per a Russian strategic missile base. Lewis and Eveleth mentioned they had been 90% sure that cellular Oreshnik launchers could be stationed on the former airbase close to Krichev, 307km east of the Belarus capital, Minsk. The researchers mentioned evaluations of the Planet Labs imagery revealed a hurried building challenge that started between 4 and 12 August and confirmed options per these of a Russian strategic missile base. One “useless giveaway” in a 19 November picture is a “military-grade rail switch level” enclosed by a safety fence to which missiles, their cellular launchers and different parts could possibly be delivered by prepare, mentioned Eveleth.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed on Friday it had captured a brand new village within the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia area. The ministry wrote on Telegram it had seized the village of Kosivtseve, north of the city of Huliaipole, which has come below extreme Russian strain in current weeks. It mentioned Russian troops had taken greater than 23 sq km of territory in securing the village, giving the “east” group of forces “a base for additional offensive actions”. The defence ministry mentioned its forces had deployed drones to stop contemporary Ukrainian troops from getting into Huliaipole.