Friday’s Coverage: Russia’s Defense Minister in North Korea

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1919 GMT:

At least four civilians have been killed and 21 injured by a Russian missile strike on the village of Tsarychanka in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

Eight of the wounded are in serious condition. An 11-year-old boy is among those being treated in hospital.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky commented on the attack, “And so almost every day Ukraine defends itself against this absolutely inhuman pressure.”

UPDATE 1740 GMT:

At least two civilians were killed and six injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

One fatality and the injured were in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Another man was killed by a guided bomb on the Kharkiv region in the northeast.

Ukraine air defenses downed eight of 10 attack drones launched by Russia overnight.

The drones were intercepted over the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Dnipro, and Kherson regions.

UPDATE 1722 GMT:

Ukraine military intelligence agency HUR says it destroyed three Russian high-value mobile radar stations in occupied Crimea on Friday.

The targets were a Kasta-2E2 radar, estimated to cost around $30 million, and two 48Y6-K1 Podlet systems worth $5 million each.

HUR claimed it struck another Podlet radar system in Crimea on Thursday.

UPDATE 1011 GMT:

In his interview with Sky News, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said Western allies have failed to give sufficient support to Ukrainian troops.

Zelensky said partners only provided enough aid to fully equip 2 1/2 of 10 brigades.

Asked what NATO and the US could do over Ukraine’s manpower shortages, Zelensky replied, “Just equip the brigades.”

The US is reportedly urging Ukraine to lower its minimum mobilization age from 25 to 18 to replenish the military.

Zelensky responded:

How do you want me just to mobilize young guys, [as] they don’t know where to go – in which brigade, with which weapon they will fight?

They speak about mobilization, but the real problem [is] with 10 brigades which our partners didn’t equip.

UPDATE 1005 GMT:

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov has met North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

The two men issued ritual statements about North Korean support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including missiles, millions of artillery shells, and around 11,000 troops.

Kim vowed that North Korea will “invariably support” the invasion as military cooperation is boosted. A statement declared an elevation of the strategic partnership.

Kim said North Korea “will invariably support the policy of the Russian Federation to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Belousov said Moscow-Pyongyang ties were “actively expanding in all areas, including military cooperation”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has indicated acceptance of a ceasefire if free areas of Ukraine are “under the NATO umbrella”.

In an interview with Sky News, Zelensky addressed reports that Donald Trump could consider a plan where Ukraine gives up Russian-occupied territories in exchange for NATO membership.

Zelensky rejected any concession of territory, emphasizing that any NATO invitation must acknowledge Ukraine’s internationally-recognized borders.

However, he said, “Ukraine can work to reclaim [Russian-occupied territory] through diplomatic means.”

The President stressed the urgency of the matter to check the Kremlin’s aggression:

A ceasefire is needed to guarantee that Putin will not return. NATO must immediately cover the territories under Ukraine’s control, which is very much needed. Otherwise, he [Putin] will come back.