There are now almost 11,000 North Korean infantry troops training in eastern Russia, to fight in Ukraine, Kyiv's Defense Intelligence Directorate has said. This week has seen multiple reports about Moscow planning to use North Korean soldiers,

Ukraine's military intelligence head Kyrylo Budanov said the first group of 2,600 soldiers will be deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast, where Ukraine began a cross-border incision in August and still holds significant swathes of territory.

Reports suggest that North Korean troops have arrived in Russia to bolster Vladimir Putin's forces after two and a half years of brutal fighting following his invasion of Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine have each swapped 95 prisoners of war with the United Arab Emirates acting as mediator. Russia’s defence ministry, in a post on the Telegram messaging app, said the returning Russian service members were undergoing medical checks in Belarus, one of Russia’s closest allies in the more than two-and-a-half-year-old war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday he had told U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump that Ukraine needed either nuclear weapons or NATO membership for its

Vladimir Putin responded to the comments of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who expressed on Thursday that his country faces two choices: either join NATO or develop nuclear weapons. "Russia will not allow this to happen,