Kim Jong Un walked the red carpet upon his arrival in the border town of Khasan.
Kim said his first visit to Russia in four years marked a transparent demonstration of the strategic importance between the two countries, according to Yonhap news agency.
Kim’s stopover in Russia marks his first stop after the global public health crisis, KCNA said, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU agriculture commissioner said he believes the European Commission will extend the transitional ban on Ukrainian imports to five neighboring EU states, as the move has helped boost exports outside the bloc.
Ukraine has become completely dependent on routes chosen by the European Union, called solidarity routes, for grain exports after Russia in July abandoned a year-long agreement that allowed Ukrainian grain to be safely shipped to its Black Sea ports.
As a result, farmers in neighboring states (Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia) have faced increased festivals and bottlenecks in their own markets.
The European Commission announced in May “temporary preventive measures” that would ban sales to those five states and allow transit to third markets, mainly Africa.
Speaking today, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told the European Parliament: “The preventive measures have been effective and effective and have stabilised markets in the five Member States and have also helped to increase exports through solidarity channels.
“This is the main argument for expanding preventive measures, which is my position. “
It added that the Commission was closely monitoring the situation.
Ukrainian troops fired on Russian troops in the Donetsk region.
North Korea is the only country, along with Russia and Syria, to recognize Donetsk’s independence and has also alluded to its interest in sending structural personnel to those regions to assist in restructuring efforts.
The region is the scene of intense fighting.
Ukraine carried out a drone strike on the Russian city of Enerhodar, near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the head of Russia’s state nuclear corporation said via Russian news agency RIA.
Rosatom leader Alexei Likhachev said six drones were introduced into Enerhodar and all were destroyed.
The city is in southeastern Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine more than 18 months ago.
And the nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, is in Russian hands.
Today we report on Kim Jong Un’s visit to Russia and discuss what agreements could be reached.
Some recommend that Vladimir Putin possibly try to strike a deal that would allow North Korea to supply weapons and ammunition to Russian forces.
Sharing his perspectives on the issue, senior researcher Siemon Wezeman of Stockholm’s International Peace Research Institute said it is “quite credible” that North Korea has giant stockpiles of munitions that would be compatible with artillery systems used by Russian forces.
“However, if Russia were indeed to participate in such an agreement with North Korea, it would be an unequivocal violation of the law,” he said.
The researcher stated that United Nations Security Resolution 1874 of June 2009 “completely prohibits the acquisition of any weapons and similar apparatus from North Korea. “
He added: “It remains to be seen whether an agreement will be reached. Both sides would have an explanation for why to keep the secret.
“We may not know for sure until there is hard evidence that Russia used North Korean weapons and ammunition on the battlefield of Ukraine. “
A Russian Su-24 front-line bomber crashed an educational flight in the southern Volgograd region, news firm TASS reports citing the Defense Ministry.
According to the ministry, the plane was flying without ammunition and crashed in an abandoned area.
TASS provided more information about the crash, but a local government spokesperson told TASS there were no casualties.
Mi-8 helicopters were sent to the scene.
By Jack Taylor, OSINT Producer
Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia in his armored exercise to cross the border into North Korea.
Our Data and Research Unit tracked evidence online about how it spread and where it might go.
The train adventure began Sunday afternoon at Pyongyang Station. The images were released through North Korean state media to mark the occasion.
The armored exercise then crossed North Korea to the crossing point into Russia, the Korea-Russia Friendship Bridge.
Images were posted at any of the border posts.
This video from Russian state media Mr. Kim arrives at Khasan train station, just 1. 6 km from the border.
In many of them Vladimir Putin will meet with the North Korean leader.
They had already met in 2019 in Vladivostok, where Putin was at an economic forum. The city is easily available thanks to North Korean activity.
But Sky News footage, published through Russian state media, shows a railway heading in the opposite direction towards the town of Ussuriysk.
The scene was located by matching key elements of the video, such as bridges and railroad tracks, with satellite imagery.
The foreign ministers of the G7 group, made up of mainly industrialized countries, condemned Russia’s holding of what they called “fake elections” in the occupied Ukrainian territories in a statement issued today through the British government.
“We unequivocally condemn the organization of fake elections organized through Russia on the sovereign territory of Ukraine in the provinces of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea,” the G7 said.
“These mock ‘elections’ will not replace our technique or that of Ukraine in its struggle to regain its territory recognized around the world. “
As a reminder: Russia has organized regional elections, adding four Ukrainian regions that it fully controls: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that elections being held on Ukrainian territory “seriously violate Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” as well as foreign law.
And U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called the vote in Russian-occupied spaces in Ukraine a “fake election” and called it “illegitimate. “
Vladimir Putin will try to fire ammunition from his meeting with Kim Jong Un, said Professor Michael Clarke, a defense analyst.
Presenting his research on the upcoming meeting between the two leaders, Clarke said North Korea would seek grain and food from the meeting, while Russia would seek munitions.
“According to the UN, about a quarter of North Korea’s population goes hungry and the other three-quarters live at a subsistence level,” he said.
“That’s why they want food and oil. “
Clarke said the Russian military has most likely used between 8 million and 11 million artillery shells so far this war.
“They want ammunition and that’s what they’re going to get,” he added.
“The war, of course, continues with more munitions. “
The defense analyst also said the Russian military was moving its troops and gathering men near Kharkiv for a “major counterattack. “
You can see Clarke’s full research here. . .
Vladimir Putin’s critic, Alexei Navalny, could be included in a multilateral prisoner swap between the West and Russia, officials told the Wall Street Journal.
In 2021, the Russian leader asked his top security adviser to hand over a prisoner to free murderer Vadim Krasikov, convicted of murdering Chechen dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Germany in 2019.
The court ruled that the Russian citizen was an officer of the Russian intelligence service FSB and was tasked with committing murders on foreign soil.
After Krasikov was convicted, he was sentenced to life in prison and Germany declared two Russian diplomats “undesirable persons. “
However, the hitman’s release has been raised through Kremlin negotiations with Western officials in recent years.
And now, Western officials have told the US newspaper that a multilateral agreement to exchange Russian detainees in Western countries could be finalized, and that Mr Navalny could also be involved.
Last month, Navalny was sentenced by a court to 19 years of criminal sentence after being convicted of extremism charges similar to the activities of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK).
He is already serving a nine-year sentence on a series of charges he says are politically motivated.