“Ukraine – Russia”

Vladimir Putin today declared that the war in Ukraine could have been averted had Donald Trump not been ‘robbed of the election’ in 2020.

Describing his armed forces’ full-scale invasion of their neighbour in February 2022 as a ‘crisis’, Putin told state media the horrific bloodshed that has blighted eastern Europe for almost three years would not have happened under a Trump presidency.

‘I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president, if his victory had not been stolen from him in 2020, then perhaps there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that arose in 2022,’ the Russian president said.

As soldiers fighting for Ukraine try to hold onto the hundreds of square kilometres they seized in Russia’s Kursk region in August, some describe facing relentless waves of determined North Korean troops, Russian units with improved tactics, and Ukraine’s own struggles with exhaustion and sinking morale.

“I honestly don’t think we’re going to be able to hold it for much longer,” said Chapi, a foreign fighter who spoke to CBC in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine, about 15 km from the Russian border.

Odd coming from the CBC.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made what may be a final gambit as speculation around negotiations with Russia becomes unavoidable. Addressing European leaders, he provided a reminder that the war in Ukraine, now featuring thousands of North Korean troops, is happening on their doorstep.

A surrendering North Korean soldier risked his life by refusing to drop his sausage at gunpoint, according to the Ukrainian paratroopers who captured him.

A detailed video account, published by Ukrainian special forces, described how the soldier refused to lay down his food, while one of his compatriots tried to kill himself by running into a pillar.

They later asked to watch Korean romance films, the Ukrainians said.

This is absolutely insane.

A Russian soldier shared his "review" of a North Korean stew that he received from his North Korean comrades, unsure what kind of meat it was.

It was dog meat.

The label indicates "Yellow Dog Meat"—with *누렁이* referring to the Korean native… pic.twitter.com/KAWIuo4Fl4

— Astraia (@astraiaintel) November 1, 2024

Ukraine has detained its army’s chief psychiatrist for alleged “illegal enrichment” charges related to earnings of more than $1m (£813,000) accrued since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

In a statement, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the man sat on a commission deciding whether individuals were fit for military service.

The SBU statement did not name him – however, a man called Oleh Druz was previously identified as the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ chief psychiatrist.

SUMY REGION, Ukraine — “Resistance is futile.” “Surrender.” “You’re all surrounded.”

The phrases, printed in Korean with rough Russian transliterations on a weathered piece of paper Ukrainian troops said they took off a dead North Korean soldier this month, offer a remarkable insight into how Russia appears to have prepared their new allies to take Ukrainian prisoners during their assaults on the front lines.

Ukrainian troops are using such documents and other items they have recovered from the battlefield to better understand the thousands of North Korean troops that have been assaulting their positions in recent weeks, in the latest global escalation in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia is deploying soldiers sent by Kim Jong-un who ‘will feel like they have stepped out a of a time machine’. Thousands have been killed or wounded

President Zelensky of Ukraine posted a picture on X last Saturday that showed a captured solder lying on a thin mattress with a rough grey blanket draped across his legs. His hand is heavily bandaged and he stares into the camera with a look of trepidation.

In another photograph, a second soldier is wrapped in military fatigues with his bruised and swollen jaw swaddled in gauze. The two men were North Koreans, some of the first prisoners of war from the secretive state captured in combat since the Korean War that began in 1950.

Forcing Ukraine to negotiate with Russia before it regains the advantage on the battlefield would be a catastrophic mistake, officials in Kyiv have warned ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Fearing that the new US administration could reduce military aid if he refuses talks, Volodymyr Zelensky is scrambling to make the case that Ukraine first needs time and support to escalate its campaign deep inside Russia.

A failure to make Vladimir Putin “feel pain” before negotiating would would embolden the Russian president, weaken Ukraine and ultimately damage the West’s reputation and interests, according to Mr Zelensky’s aides.

Millions of dollars worth of Russian oil is coming into Canada thanks to a loophole in federal sanctions, providing much-needed income for the Kremlin to fuel its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

CBC News’s visual investigations team, in collaboration with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), found that since the start of the Ukraine war roughly 2.5 million barrels — or $250 million worth of refined petroleum products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel — have ended up in Canada.

The news was sensational. It travelled quickly among Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. “I heard from a friend of a friend,” one officer, Vitalii Ovcharenko, recalled. “This was half an hour after it happened. My friend said: ‘We’ve got a North Korean prisoner! He’s in shock but OK.’ I said: ‘Wow.’” Ovcharenko added: “Everyone wanted a selfie. They wrapped him in a blanket and gave him tea.”

Last week’s capture of two North Korean servicemen was an extraordinary moment in Russia’s bloody war against Ukraine. The Kremlin has taken elaborate steps to conceal the presence of 12,000 elite troops sent in autumn by Pyongyang to Russia. At camps in the Far East they were given Russian equipment: uniforms, rifles and fake military documents.

Australia has vowed to take the “strongest possible action” if it is confirmed that Russian forces have executed one of its citizens captured in Ukraine.

Ministers said they were “seeking urgent clarification” from Moscow about the condition of Oscar Jenkins after reports of his death circulated earlier this week.

The 32-year-old, from Melbourne, was serving with Ukrainian forces when he was captured by Russian troops last year.

Authorities in Germany’s southern state of Bavaria confirmed on Monday that up to 10 mysterious drones had recently been spotted above an air base.

Investigators have not ruled out espionage as a motive behind the drone flights, floating the possibility that they are connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA) said that officer had been able to detect at least ten drones flying above Manching Air Base near the city of Ingolstadt on Sunday evening.