Ukraine updates: Zelenskyy meets with Nordic leaders

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Putin announces new strategic nuclear training exercise

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a new military nuclear training exercise on Tuesday. 

"Today we are conducting another exercise of strategic deterrence forces," Putin said in a video clip released by the Kremlin. "We will work out the actions of officials to control the use of nuclear weapons with practical launches of balllistic and cruise missiles." 

Putin called the use of nuclear forces an extreme measure, and also said that Russia would not take part in any arms race, but Moscow needed to have its nuclear forces ready for use. 

Russia has often alluded to its nuclear arsenal, the world's largest, amid the conflict in Ukraine and its deteriorating relations with the West. 

It recently revised the circumstances in which it might consider a nuclear strike neccessary, to include a large conventional attack on Russia by a non-nuclear power supported by nuclear-armed allies. This was seen as a bid to deter NATO and Ukraine.

Moscow is also in the process of modernizing parts of its nuclear arsenal.

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Finnish President Stubb says he urged China's Xi to talk to Putin

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has said he urged Chinese President Xi Jinping to talk to Vladimir Putin about the Russian invasion of Ukraine during talks in Beijing.

"Right now we are very much in a situation whereby Russian aggression has violated international law," Stubb said in remarks at the start of a press conference.

Stubb earlier said the talks with Xi were aimed partly at finding "peaceful solutions" to the war in Ukraine. 

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Russian forces take Ukraine's Selydove: Defense Ministry

Russian troops have captured — in Moscow's parlance, "liberated" — the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove as they move closer to the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

"As a result of successful operations ... the town of Selidovo in the Donetsk region is fully liberated," the ministry said, using the Russian spelling for Selydove.

Selydove, which had the only coal mine in the Donetsk region still under Ukrainian control, is just 18 km (10 miles) southeast of Pokrovsk.

Its capture comes amid a slow but seemingly inexorable advance by Russian troops in the region in the past months.

Moscow very recently claimed the capture of two nearby villages, Bogoyavlenka and Katerynivka, and the small town of Girnyk, all located to the south of Selydove. 

According to an analysis by the AFP news agency based on figures from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian army took 478 square kilometers of Ukrainian territory in October.

That is a record since the first weeks of the invasion in March 2022.

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Kremlin says factory of Germany's Rheinmetall a 'legitimate target'

Russia could legitimately strike a factory of the German concern Rheinmetall in Ukraine that produces military equipment for Kyiv, the Kremlin's spokesman has said.

Dmitry Peskov said the factory, which opened in late October, could "of course" be a target of Russian attacks.

Rheinmetall, which says it intends to open four military factories in all in Ukraine, said it had already heard such threats from Moscow and that its operations in Ukraine were well-protected.

The existing factor is set to manufacture several Lynx infantry fighting vehicles for Kyiv by the end of the year, while future plants are to manufacture gunpowder, tank ammunition and air defense systems, Rheinmetall director Armin Papperger told Ukrainian media.

This year, Papperger himself was reportedly the planned target of a foiled assassination plot by Russia.

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Drone hits Chechen university used to train volunteers to fight Ukraine

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, says a drone has hit a university where thousands of volunteers have been trained to fight against Ukraine.  
 "As a result of a drone attack from the air a roof caught fire on an empty building of the Russian Special Forces University in Gudermes at 6:30 am (0330 GMT)," Kadyrov wrote on Telegram.

He said there were "no casualties" and that the fire was extinguished.

Later, he told reporters that there would be a harsh response to the attack.

"They've bitten us - we will destroy them," Kadyrov told reporters in a video published by Russian state news agency RIA.

"In the very near future we'll show them the kind of vengeance they've never even dreamt of," he said.
The university, which Putin toured during a rare visit to Chechnya in August, has trained more than 19,000 volunteers to fight in Ukraine since Russia launched its 2022 offensive, Russia's TASS state news agency reported.

Chechnya — situated in the North Caucasus — is a Russian republic possessing limited autonomy from Moscow. Its government has expressed unqualified support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukraine has frequently employed drones to attack sites within Russia. but Tuesday's attack appeared to be the first it has carried out against Chechnya.

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Ukraine war 'becoming internationalized,' Zelenskyy tells South Korea's Yoon

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has agreed to boost the exchange of intelligence between his country and South Korea in a call with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The agreement comes as the US has alleged that some 10,000 troops from North Korea are training in Russia for probable later deployment in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said on X, formerly Twitter, that the involvement of North Korean troops meant that the war in Ukraine was "becoming internationalized."

He added that Ukraine and South Korea would "soon exchange delegations to coordinate actions."

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

North Korea's foreign minister in Russia for Moscow visit: State media

Choe was formerly first vice minister of foreign affairsImage: Luong Thai Linh/AFP/Getty Images

Russian state media have said that North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui has arrived in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok on her way to Moscow, a day after Washington said 10,000 North Korean troops were in Russia for probable deployment in Ukraine.

It was not clear whom Choe would meet in Moscow.

She is on her second visit to Russia in six weeks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a partnership treaty with North Korea in June under which the two countries agreed to support each other if one of them came under attack.
 

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Deadly Russian air attacks cause casualties in Kharkiv, Kyiv

The Derschprom building (State Industry Building) in Kharkiv was damaged on MondayImage: George Ivanchenko/AA/picture alliance

Russia bombarded Ukraine's two largest cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv overnight, with several people killed and wounded in the attacks.

Ukrainian officials said four people were killed in Kharkiv when the Osnovianskyi district came under attack after midnight, while six were injured in Kyiv by falling debris from a destroyed Russian drone.

The Ukrainian military reported that they had shot down 26 out of 48 drones launched overnight.

On Monday, the Derzhprom building in Kharkiv, one of the city's best-known landmarks, was badly damaged in a Russian guided bomb attack.

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

High-ranking North Korean military could go to front line: South Korea

Some high-ranking North Korean military officials and troops that NATO says have been sent to Russia for likely deployment in Ukraine might be sent to the front line, South Korean lawmakers said on Tuesday after being briefed by the country's spy agency.

Seoul has warned of a "significant security threat" after Washington alleged that North Korea had sent 10,000 troops to train in Russia ahead of being probably moved to Ukraine to fight there.

"This illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a significant security threat to the international community and could pose a serious risk to our national security," President Yoon Suk Yeol said.

North Korea had also sent some 4,000 workers to Russia this year, according to the South Korean lawmakers, who had been attending a parliamentary intelligence committee hearing.

NATO has said North Korean units have already been deployed to Russia's Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have been staging an incursion for several weeks during which they have captured some territory.

10/29/2024October 29, 2024

Zelenskyy meets with Nordic leaders

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has attended the fourth Ukraine-Nordic summit in Iceland as he seeks to gain international support for his "victory plan" to defeat the Russian invasion.

"Our discussions will focus on support for the Victory Plan and the areas where our cooperation can yield maximum results: financing Ukrainian weapons production and long-range capabilities," Zelensky said in a post on social media.

A statement issued after the meeting said, "The Nordic countries support Ukraine's Victory Plan as presented by President Zelenskyy."

The leaders also reiterated their support for Ukraine's NATO membership.

The five Nordic countries whose leaders attended the summit — Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden — are some of the major supporters of Kyiv, pledging millions of euros in aid to Ukraine since Russian forces began their invasion nearly three years ago.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Zelenskyy said he told Nordic leaders that "[O]nly determination – truly long-range – will bring the war to an end."

tj/kb (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)