Ukraine-Russia live: South Korea demands immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops from Russia

Alexei Navalny’s memoir Patriot compiled from his prison diaries is set to be published tomorrow.

The Russian opposition leader’s memoir has been edited by his widow Yulia Navalnaya and will be released in 22 languages, including Russian.

Navalny, the most prominent critic of Vladimir Putin until his death earlier this year, wrote that he expected to die in prison. “I knew from the outset that I would be imprisoned for life – either the rest of my life or until the end of the life of this regime,” he wrote in a diary entry in March 2022. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he said.

His widow has said she “wants his voice to be heard loudly even after his death”. Navalny died under unknown circumstances inside a Russian prison facility on 16 February 2024.

Putin’s forces have not “managed to gain a foothold” in the war-town city of Chasiv Yar despite claims of Russian advances.

Anastasia Bobovnikova, a spokesperson of the operational tactical group Luhansk, told the Kyiv Independent: “I do not confirm the fact that Russian troops have managed to gain a foothold in the canal … or anywhere in the direction of Chasiv Yar.

“The overall strategic position of the city remains under the control of Ukraine.”

It comes after the crowd-sourced war-monitoring website DeepState reported on October 17 that Russian forces had made advances.

Bobovnikova explained that groups of Russian soldiers had occasionally crossed the canal and carried out assaults on Ukrainian positions, adding: “However, such manoeuvres are accompanied by significant losses for the Russians. Ukrainian forces quickly repel such attacks, pushing Russian units back.”

The UK is using profits on frozen Russian assets to loan £2.26 billion to Ukraine to aid with its fight against Russia’s invasion, it has been announced.

The funds represent the UK’s share of a $50 billion (£38.39 billion) loan package agreed upon by the G7 nations, financed through interest generated from sanctioned Russian sovereign assets.

The money could be used to fund air defence, artillery or other military equipment and comes on top of the UK’s existing £3 billion-a-year support for Ukraine.

Announcing the package, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: “Our support for Ukraine and her men and women in their fight for freedom from Putin’s aggression is unwavering and will remain so for as long as it takes.

“This new money is in Britain’s national interest because the front line of our defence – the defence of our democracy and shared values – is in the Ukrainian trenches. A safe and secure Ukraine is a safe and secure United Kingdom.”

Ukrainian officials have released a video purporting to show dozens of North Korean recruits lining up to collect Russian military fatigues.

The video confirms Russia’s deployment of troops sent by Pyongyang into the conflict, they claimed. In the video, North Korean soldiers are seen standing in line to pick up bags, clothes and other apparel from Russian servicemen.

“We received this video from our own sources. We cannot provide additional verification from the sources who provided it to us due to security concerns,” said Ihor Solovey, the head of Ukraine’s Centre for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

“The video clearly shows North Korean citizens being given Russian uniforms under the direction of the Russian military,” he said.

“For Ukraine, this video is important because it is the first video evidence that shows North Korea participating in the war on the side of Russia. Now not only with weapons and shells but also with personnel.”

The centre claims the footage was shot by a Russian soldier in recent days. It didn’t say how the footage was obtained. The location is unknown.

Russia launched several waves of drones targeting Kyiv for the second night in a row, damaging residential buildings and injuring at least one civilian, Ukrainian officials said early today.

“Another night, another worry,” Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration said. “The enemy does not reduce the intensity of air attacks on Ukraine and Kyiv.”

About 10 drones targeting the city in several waves and from different directions were destroyed, Mr Popko said. While none of the weapons hit their target, falling debris injured at least one man, he added.

Debris fell onto three of Kyiv’s major districts, causing some damage to roofs and the facades of several residential buildings and power cables, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Four firefighters in an industrial zone in Dzerzhinsk in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region received minor shrapnel wounds from a Ukrainian drone attack, the region’s governor said on Sunday.

“They were given the necessary medical care, everyone was sent home,” Gleb Nikitin said on the Telegram messaging app.

The Russian RIA agency reported that Russian air defence systems destroyed 110 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including eight over Nizhny Novgorod region, some 400 km east of Moscow.

France is set to use €300 million of frozen Russian assets to purchase military equipment for Ukraine, BFMTV has reported.

Part of the package includes 12 new Caesar self-propelled howitzers, which is a highly capable artillery system, known for its precision and versatility on the battlefield.

Defence minister Sébastien Lecornu said to the French channel that the funds, which will be recovered by the end of the year, will finance not only the Caesar howitzers but also shells, missiles and guided bombs.

Lecornu stressed the importance of strengthening Ukraine’s negotiating position, saying that “Russia will only respect a favorable balance of power.”

A Russian air force commander blamed for a lethal attack on a shopping centre in Ukraine has been found dead.

Col Dmitry Golenkov, a senior officer in Russia’s 52nd heavy bomber regiment, was assassinated by Ukraine’s military intelligence said that it had done the deed with the “hammer of justice”.

They said: “A Russian Tu-22M3 pilot has been liquidated on the territory of the Russian Federation. His head was smashed with a hammer.”

His body was found outside the village of Suponevo in the Bryansk region of Russia.

He was thought to be the mastermind of one of the worst attacks on a civilian target of the war.

Ukraine’s president, Volodoymyr Zelensky, said more than 1,000 people were inside the shopping centre in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk when it was struck. A fire broke out and the attack killed at least 20 people and injured at least 59.

Ukraine‘s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha met with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan in Ankara on Monday to discuss cooperation between their countries. According to Ukraine‘s Foreign Ministry, the meeting focused on strengthening strategic relations, defence cooperation and addressing global food security through Black Sea grain shipments from Ukraine that pass through Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait.

“We welcome with great appreciation the contributions of Turkish companies to the reconstruction of Ukraine. We eagerly anticipate even greater involvement from them in the future,” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

Russia conducted a ballistic missile strike at Zelenskyy’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, injuring five people, city administration head Oleksandr Vilkul wrote on social media.

According to Vilkul, Russia has conducted ballistic missile attacks on Kryvyi Rih for three consecutive days, injuring a total of 21 people and damaging dozens of residential buildings and civilian infrastructure. Machine gunfire and the noise of drones’ engines were also heard in Kyiv’s centre throughout the night. Authorities reported minor damages to civilian infrastructure caused by falling drone debris in three districts.