Russian missile hits Dnipro as Zelensky warns of North Korean troops ‘joining Putin’

Weapons purchased from South Korea will not be transferred to Ukraine, the president of Poland Andrzej Duda has said.

Mr Duda was asked by reporters whether Poland would supply Kyiv with any arms it received from South Korea, if Seoul decides to supply Ukraine with weapons in future.

He said that Ukraine had requested the possible transfer of South Korean weapons to Kyiv – but Poland refused.

“There is no scenario in which we give someone the weapons we have recently bought for billions of zlotys from the pockets of our taxpayers. These weapons should serve the security and defence of the Republic of Poland,” he said.

In a rare interview with the BBC’s Emma Barnett, Bush, 66, announced the release of a new short film – which she wrote and directed – inspired by Russia’s war on Ukraine Just over four minutes long, the animated clip depicts a little shrew searching for hope as she navigates a bombed-out city, soundtracked to “Snowflake”, Bush’s song from her 2011 album, 50 Words for Snow.

Read the full report by Roisin O’Connor:

Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies yesterday reached consensus on delivery of some $50bn in loans to Ukraine backed by the earnings from frozen Russian sovereign assets starting as early as December.

“These loans will be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilization of Russian Sovereign Assets,” the G7 statement said.

“Our aim is to begin disbursing the funds by the end of the year,” said the statement, which was released as global finance chiefs were meeting in Washington for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.

An accompanying statement from G7 finance ministers said that the loans would be disbursed through a series of bilateral loans, starting as soon as 1 December and continuing through the end of 2027 “in installments that will reflect Ukraine’s urgent financing needs.”

Each bilateral loan would enter into force no later than 30 June 2025, which provides some timing flexibility for G7 members to arrange details.

The Ukrainian military’s commander-in-chief has refuted reports that Ukrainian troops are being surrounded in Russia’s Kursk region.

Oleksandr Syrskyi wrote on Telegram, according to Ukrainska Pravda: “This is blatant disinformation that does not reflect the real situation. Ukrainian forces continue active operations on the Kursk front, for the third consecutive month, depleting the enemy’s combat potential.

“Despite intense pressure from the enemy in this direction, the occupiers are sustaining significant losses in personnel and military equipment.”

Since August 8, Russian forces on the Kursk front have lost more than 17,000 killed, with 6,662 killed, 10,446 wounded and 711 captured, Syrskyi said.

A Russian missile attack hit residences and a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro yesterday evening, killing three people and injuring at least nine, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Mr Lysak, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said an eight-year-old girl and a teenage boy and were among the injured.

News reports from the city said several strikes hit different areas there.

Mr Lysak said a two-storey building was partly destroyed and one person could still be under rubble. A medical facility and four apartment buildings suffered damage.

Pictures posted online showed residents and rescue teams outside shattered houses and damaged facilities at the medical building.

The US has said for the first time it had evidence that 3,000 North Korean troops were receiving training in Russia for possible deployment against Ukraine in “a very serious” escalation that would make them “legitimate military targets”.

Read the full report by The Independent’s Shweta Sharma:

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff yesterday said that a full withdrawal of Russian troops, and not just peace talks, were essential to ending the war.

The chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was addressing an international meeting devoted to implementing a peace plan, one of several gatherings staged as a follow-up to last June’s world “peace summit” hosted by Switzerland.

“Don’t expect this war to end when the warring sides begin to talk to each other,” Mr Yermak told the gathering, according to the president’s website.

“Don’t be deceived. This war will end when the last soldier of the occupying army returns home.”

The gathering was attended in person in Kyiv and online by representatives of 56 countries and organisations.

Mr Yermak told the meeting that concerted international pressure on Russia should set a precedent.

“This will prove to the entire world that the pursuit of international conquests in the 21st century is immoral and senseless. Whatever has been seized will have to be returned to the rightful owners,” he was quoted as saying.

The international community, he said, had to prove stronger than any aggressor, “however strong that aggressor might be”.

The Ukrainian military could be defending attacks by North Korean troops as soon as Sunday or Monday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Ukrainian intelligence had determined that the North Korean military was ready to be deployed by Putin’s forces within days, Zelensky said, in what he described as an “obvious escalating move by Russia”.

He did not provide any details on where the troops might be deployed.

It comes after Russian president Vladimir Putin was asked about satellite photos of North Korean troops in Russia during the Brics summit. “Images are a serious thing, if there are images, then they reflect something,” he said.

The US said on Wednesday that Russia is training 3,000 North Korean troops to fight on Ukrainian soil.

Russian troops are advancing towards the town of Selydove in the eastern Donetsk region, a UK Defence Intelligence report has found.

The town is en route to the vital Ukrainian logistics hub of Pokrovsk, on a frontline which Putin’s forces are focussing much of their manpower.

Russian forces “almost certainly” advanced towards Selydove, the military report found.

“The town remains contested, with fighting likely continuing to take place within the town centre,” it added, according to European Pravda.

Since the beginning of October, Russia’s advance towards Pokrovsk has slowed significantly, the military added.

When Vahan Agayan goes to the polling station in Georgia’s parliamentary election Saturday, he says he and his wife will vote as directed to by officials of the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Agayan has a sheep farm near the border with Armenia and Turkey, 135 kilometers (83 miles) west of — and a world away from — the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. There, tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in a pre-election demonstration in favor of joining the European Union.

But in the mountainous Javakheti region, what Agayan wants most is stability.