Ukraine–Russia latest: North Korean troops arrive in Russia

Donald Trump held Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Joe Biden responsible for the Russia-Ukraine war in an interview — but made no reference to Vladimir Putin.

Two and a half years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump pinned the blame squarely on Zelensky and Biden for the conflict during an interview with podcaster Patrick Bet-David, which aired Thursday.

“I think Zelensky is one of the greatest salesmen I’ve ever seen,” Trump said, grumbling about how much aid the US has given Ukraine.

“And that doesn’t mean I don’t want to help them because I feel very badly for those people. But he should never have let that war start,” the former president added.

“That war’s a loser.”

Ukraine’s former commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, on Thursday expressed his support for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “victory plan,” despite the tensions between the two that led to his dismissal.

“Ukraine must clearly follow the plan,” Zaluzhnyi said in his first public appearance since his appointment as ambassador to the U.K.

He told an audience at London’s Chatham House think-tank: “But this list of steps primarily concerns those countries that should ultimately be interested in stopping the war.”

Susie Blann and Hanna Arhirova have the full report:

US President Joe Biden championed his NATO allies to continue their support of Ukraine on his visit to Berlin yesterday.

Mr Biden met Germany’s chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday, and were joined by French president Emmanuel Macron and British prime minister Keir Starmer for discussions.

“We should never underestimate the power of democracy, never underestimate the value of alliances,” Mr. Biden said at the Bellevue Palace in Berlin.

Western allies must “sustain our support (…) until Ukraine wins a just and sustainable peace. We’re headed into a very difficult winter. We cannot let up,” he added.

On Thursday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky unveiled a five-point “victory plan” to beat Russia to the European Union and NATO leaders, insisting that an “immediate invitation to Ukraine to join NATO would be decisive”.

Ukrainian troops have been caught up in fierce fighting for the town of Toretsk in the eastern region of Donetsk, which Russian troops entered on Friday, reported Al Jazeera.

“They erase the city with artillery. We have already seen it in other towns of Donbas. And after that, they storm in small groups. They are trying to find weak points in our defence with such small strikes,” Anastasia Bobovnikova, spokesperson for Luhansk Technical University said.

Head of Ukraine’s National Guard, Ruslan Muzychuk, said that Russia was trying to gain as much ground as possible before the rain makes it impossible for armoured vehicles to operate.

British foreign secretary David Lammy on Friday raised his concerns regarding China’s support of Russia in its war against Ukraine, and urged his Chinese counterpart to prevent Chinese firms from providing supplies to Russia, reported the Associated Press.

Mr Lammy is on a two-day visit to China, and met vice premier Ding Xuexiang, and held talks with foreign minister Wang Yi on Friday.

In a statement after the meeting, the Foreign Office said that Mr Lammy “stated how both the UK and China have a shared interest in European peace and ending the war. He reaffirmed that concerns over China’s supply of equipment to Russia’s military industrial complex risks damaging China’s relationships with Europe whilst helping to sustain Russia’s war”.

Mr Lammy urged Mr Wang to “take all measures to investigate and to prevent Chinese companies from supplying Russia’s military,” the statement said.

Mr Zelensky made the claim, without offering further details, a day after US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell said Washington and its allies were concerned by North Korea’s military support for Russia.

South Korea’s spy agency said on Friday that North Korea has sent 1,500 special forces troops to Russia’s Far East for training and acclimatisation at local military bases, likely to be deployed for combat in the war in Ukraine, reported Reuters.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it had been working with Ukraine’s intelligence service and identified North Korean officers in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region using facial recognition artificial intelligence technology.

“The direct military cooperation between Russia and North Korea that has been reported by foreign media has now been officially confirmed,” the spy agency said in a statement.

The free world “must not tremble” at Vladimir Putin’s threats, Volodymyr Zelensky has urged, as the Ukrainian president pressed for Nato and the EU to back his new “victory plan” to beat Russia.

In a hectic day of diplomacy in Brussels after unveiling the five-point plan he insists can end the war next year, Mr Zelensky sought to coalesce the support of Ukraine’s allies as he addressed European Union and Nato leaders in back-to-back meetings on Thursday.

With the plan hinging on the thorny issue of Nato membership for Ukraine, over which many of the military alliance’s member states are wary, Mr Zelensky underscored the test of allegiance facing Kyiv’s allies, declaring: “This plan doesn’t depend on Russian will, only on the will of our partners.”