Russia Ukraine war latest: Vladimir Putin lands in North Korea as he ‘praises dictator Kim Jong-un’

Anastasiia Motychak did not know why Irina – the person in charge of her camp in Russian-occupied Crimea – had just slapped her across the face; she just knew she missed her mum and wanted to go home to the Ukrainian city of Kherson.

It had been two months since the then 15-year-old had been put on a bus and moved from the then Russian-occupied Kherson, in southern Ukraine, to a two-week “vacation camp” in Yevpatoria, western Crimea. Kherson was no place for a child, the Russian soldiers had warned.

Days later, Ukrainian forces liberated the city. But by then, Anastasiia was 150 miles deeper into occupied territory, sleeping in a room with barred windows.

President Vladimir Putin is in North Korea for a summit with its leader, Kim Jong Un, as the two nations deepen their cooperation.

The visit comes amid growing concerns about an arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Russia’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology to enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Despite their often aligning interests, relations between Russia and North Korea have experienced highs and lows. Read more here:

An Estonian court has sentenced a former professor of political theory at the University of Tartu, a Russian citizen, to six years and three months in jail for spying, the country’s public broadcaster ERR reported.

Viacheslav Morozov was arrested in January and accused of gathering information about Estonia’s internal, defence and security policy, as well as people and infrastructure related to it, ERR said.

He was also accused of conveying information about Estonia’s political situation, relationships with allies, integration and social cohesion.

Ukraine is investigating the suspected beheading of one of its servicemen by Russian forces in an occupied part of the eastern Donetsk region, the Ukrainian general prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday.

Russia, which has repeatedly denied its forces carry out war crimes during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022, has made no comment on the allegation.

“The fact of decapitation of a Ukrainian defender was recorded in the Donetsk region,” Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin wrote on the X social media platform.

In a statement, the general prosecutor’s office said the severed head of a Ukrainian soldier had been identified on a damaged armoured vehicle during aerial reconnaissance of the area.

Russia has turned increasingly to blackmail and financial incentives to hire Germans to spy for it after the blow dealt to its intelligence services by Europe’s expulsion of some 600 Russian diplomats, Germany’s domestic security service said.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) said Russian intelligence services were spending big to recruit agents in Germany despite Western attempts to limit their operations since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Russia is working hard to compensate for the German government’s reduction in the number of Russian agents in Germany,” BfV chief Thomas Haldenwang told a news conference upon presenting the agency’s annual report.

Kim Jong Un is not new to striking up sudden friendships with the world’s powerful leaders. There were the memorable times with Donald Trump after the exchange of letters described as “beautiful” by the US president, followed by tender moments in meetings which were supposed to reshape geopolitics.

Nothing much came from the sessions of mutual admiration, apart from a temporary suspension by North Korea of ballistic missile building and deep apprehension from America’s allies in the region that Trump may do a deal with Kim jeopardising their security. That did not materialise in the end, to much relief.

Now Kim has a new bestie, Vladimir Putin, and this presents a clear and present danger to the West and its allies. North Korea is already stepping in to provide Russia to replenish exhausted ammunition and missile stock for the Ukraine war.

Moscow has been accused of circumventing international sanctions to help Kim develop his military arsenal as well as planning to help his nuclear programme.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has left Russia’s far eastern region of Sakha for North Korea after stopping off there for a few hours en route to his summit with Kim Jong Un, regional news outlet 14news reported on Tuesday.