Ukraine war briefing: North Korean troops back on frontline in Kursk, says Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian president has said North Korean troops have returned to the frontline in Russia’s Kursk region, after reports Moscow had withdrawn them due to heavy losses. “There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas ... the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address on Friday. A “significant number” of opposing troops had been “destroyed”, he said. “We are talking about hundreds of Russian and North Korean soldiers.” A Ukrainian military spokesperson had said a week earlier that Kyiv had not encountered activity or clashes with North Korean troops for three weeks. Pyongyang sent more than 10,000 soldiers to Russia last year to help it fight back Ukraine’s offensive into the border region, according to South Korean and western intelligence.

Donald Trump said on Friday he would “probably” meet Zelenskyy next week, while the Ukrainian president responded by saying he appreciated working with Trump. The US president, asked by reporters in the White House whether such a meeting would be in Washington, replied that it “could be Washington – well, I’m not going there”, referring to Kyiv. Zelenskyy said “talks” were being planned but did not confirm a meeting. He wrote on X: “We’re also planning meetings and talks at the teams’ level. Right now Ukrainian and American teams are working out the details.” Meanwhile, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff said Ukraine was looking forward to a visit this month by Trump’s special envoy for the region. Andriy Yermak said he had spoken to envoy Keith Kellogg about topics including the battlefield situation, the safety of Ukrainian civilians, and meetings at the annual Munich security conference this month.

Russia has claimed its forces have seized the key eastern Ukrainian mining town of Toretsk. If confirmed, it would be the biggest settlement Moscow has captured since Avdiivka in February last year. Kyiv denied Russia had full control of the industrial hub. The capture of Toretsk, which lies on elevated ground, would allow Moscow to further obstruct Ukrainian supply routes, paving the way for it to punch deeper into the northern part of the Donetsk region, according to military analysts. Former resident Galyna Poroshyna told Agence France-Presse there was “nothing” there to go back to and that everyone had left. “Everything is destroyed there. Everything.” A press officer for Ukraine’s 28th brigade, which has been fighting for control of Toretsk, said Ukrainian forces were holding their positions on the town’s outskirts. The battlefield reports could not be verified.

European foreign ministers will discuss the Ukraine conflict at a meeting in Paris next week, the French foreign ministry said on Friday, amid reports US envoys could also attend. Ministers from France, Germany, Poland, Britain, Spain and Italy would take part in the talks on Wednesday, just ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion, the ministry said. The meeting aimed to “show continued support to Ukraine”, whether diplomatic, financial, material or related to weapons.

The Kremlin said on Friday there had been a lot of inaccurate reports on US plans for ending the Ukraine war and called for patience as speculation swirled around the timing of a possible meeting between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked by media about a report that Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy for Russia and Ukraine, was seeking to arrange a truce even before talks on a peace settlement. “We have nothing to add yet … we just need to be patient,” Peskov said.

Ukraine said it hoped the international criminal court (ICC) would continue its work prosecuting Russian war criminals, despite Trump’s decision to impose sanctions on the court. The ICC is investigating allegations of Russian war crimes committed during its invasion of Ukraine and in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Putin. Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tykhy said on Friday: “We hope that they [sanctions] will not affect the court’s ability to achieve justice for the victims of Russian aggression.” Ukraine continued to work with the ICC to move the cases forward, he added.

The International Atomic Energy Agency chief said on Friday that the number of attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant had increased, Russian state news agency Tass reported. Rafael Grossi was speaking after holding talks in Moscow with Alexei Likhachev, head of Russian nuclear corporation Rosatom. Tass quoted Grossi as saying it was not possible to determine which side was carrying out the attacks. Russian forces took control of the plant soon after the 2022 start of the war.

The Baltic states are set to sever ties with Russia’s power grid that date back to the 1950s and instead integrate further with the European Union, as the suspected sabotage of subsea cables has spurred efforts to strengthen regional security. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will disconnect from the IPS/UPS joint network early on Saturday and, subject to last-minute tests, will synchronise with the EU’s grid on Sunday, Reuters reports. Plans to decouple from Russia’s grid, debated for decades, gained momentum following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.