Ukraine-Russia war latest news: Putin to meet Kim Jong-un for weapons talks in Vladivostok

Kim Jong-un plans to travel to Russia and meet Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying Moscow with weapons for the war in Ukraine, amid Moscow’s push to seek closer military ties with North Korea.

In a rare trip abroad, Kim would travel from Pyongyang, probably by armoured train, to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia, where he would meet Putin, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing US and allied sources.

While in Vladivostok, a port city not far from North Korea, the two leaders would discuss Kim’s sending Russia artillery shells and antitank missiles in exchange for Moscow’s advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines, the newspaper reported.

At a time when the United States has expressed concern about growing military ties between the two countries, the news of Kim’s planned visit came after Russia said it was discussing holding joint military exercises with North Korea.

Cuban citizens are being trafficked to fight for Russia in its war in Ukraine, the country’s foreign ministry said.

A human trafficking operation was being run by criminals working in both the Caribbean island nation and thousands of miles away in Russia, the Cuban government said.

Authorities are now working to “neutralise and dismantle” the network.

A Cuban government statement read: “The Ministry of the Interior is working on the neutralisation and dismantling of a human trafficking network that operates from Russia to incorporate Cuban citizens living there, and even some from Cuba, into the military forces participating in war operations in Ukraine.”

Russia has yet to comment on these allegations.

Russia claims to have shot down Ukraine-launched drones in Moscow’s Istra district and another in Kaluga region in the early hours today.

“Tonight, air defence forces destroyed drones in the Kaluga region and in the Istra region that were trying to carry out an attack on Moscow. Emergency services are on the scene,” Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.

He later added that a household object was damaged as a result of fallen debris in Moscow and emergency services are “working to eliminate the consequences”.

Another drone was destroyed in the Tver region in the Zavidovo area, which the mayor claimed was flying in the direction of Moscow.

The Russian defence ministry said the three drones were either destroyed or intercepted before they could hit their targets.

The buses, operated by Go-Ahead, were used until March this year to shuttle passengers between Luton Airport and the nearby railway station.

They will now be used as rest areas for soldiers in Eastern Ukraine and to transport supplies for front-line troops after being donated to a charity supporting the Ukrainian war effort.

Russia has said that Moscow’s RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), nicknamed “Satan II” – capable of carrying ten or more nuclear warheads – has been rolled out on “combat duty”.

The head of Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said that the missiles had entered active duty, the state-run news agency RIA reported. In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Sarmat missiles would be deployed for combat duty “soon”.

Prior to that, defence committee deputy chairman Aleksey Zhuravlyov had used it as a threat when he was interviewed by state broadcaster TV Russia 1 in May regarding Sweden and Finland’s aspirations towards joining Nato in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland joined the alliance earlier this year, while Sweden is still waiting to be ratified.

Ukraine’s outgoing defence minister Oleksii Reznikov has turned in his resignation and said he was honoured to have served the war-hit country in its toughest modern-day history.

From appearing next to president Volodymyr Zelensky in a viral video shot in Kyiv just hours into the Ukraine invasion last year to carrying out deals for military aid with dozens of Western allies, the lawyer-turned-politician had played a critical role in aiding the country against Russia’s continuing full-scale invasion.

On Sunday, Mr Zelensky announced Mr Reznikov’s removal as he believed “the ministry needs new approaches and other formats of interaction with both the military and society as a whole”.

Ukraine has fought back courageously against Mr Putin’s warped bid to restore territory lost to Moscow with the collapse of the Soviet Union and has continued to defy the odds by defending itself against Russian onslaughts with the help of Western military aid.

Russia has likely proposed that North Korea participate in three-way naval exercises with China, according to a lawmaker who attended a closed-door briefing with the director of South Korea’s top spy agency Monday.

The briefing came days after Russia’s Ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, told Russian media that including North Korea in joint military drills between Russia and China “seems appropriate.” Matsegora added it was his own point of view and that he wasn’t aware of any preparations, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.

According to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, when South Korean National Intelligence Service Director Kim Kyou-hyun was asked about the possibility of such drills, he said Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu likely proposed holding trilateral naval exercises with North Korea and China while meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in July.

This is the moment a Russain landing boat was destroyed by a Ukranian drone as the sea battles in the war-torn country intensified.

The footage reportedly shows a Ukrainian Bayraktar-TB2 kamikaze drone destroying a Russian KS-701 Tuna vessel in the northwestern Black Sea.

Russia suffered fatalities and casualties in the strike, with a military helicopter airlifting the wounded according to local reports.

The strike comes as a Ukrainian kamikaze drone struck a FSB security service building in the nuclear town of Kurchatov in a separate attack.

The missile aimed at the mayor’s office took an estimated 64 seconds to fly 55 miles and detonate in shrapnel and flames after being fired by Russian forces.

Thankfully for Oleksandr Goncharenko, the mayor of Kramatorsk – near the frontline in east Ukraine – it missed the target by 200 metres, hitting a garden square.

The municipal headquarters was swiftly moved to another building for safety. But that building was bombed as well, resulting in a move to yet another location, dodging the missiles coming from the city of Horlivka which has been captured by Vladimir Putin’s forces.

There is plenty of pride in the cities around the frontline in managing to keep Putin’s forces at bay, writes Kim Sengupta from Druzhkivka. But it has come at the cost of crushing loss: