10,000 North Korean troops in Kursk show Putin’s desperation, says Nato chief – live

President Vladimir Putin kicked off a new exercise of Russia’s nuclear forces today, marking the second such drill that Moscow has held in two weeks.

In a video released by the Kremlin, Putin said using nuclear weapons would be an “extremely exceptional measure” but they need to be kept ready for use.

“We will work out the actions of officials to control the use of nuclear weapons with practical launches of ballistic and cruise missiles,” Putin was shown saying in a video clip announcing the drill.

“We will continue to improve all their components. The resources for this are available. I stress that we are not going to get involved in a new arms race, but we will maintain nuclear forces at the level of necessary sufficiency,” he said.

The drill follows an October 18 exercise in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, involving a unit equipped with Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking US cities.

The notorious Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has promised to take revenge for a drone attack that caused a fire at a military training academy in his south Russian region.

Ukraine has frequently struck Russia with drones in the course of the war, but Tuesday’s attack appeared to be the first against Chechnya.

Kadyrov told reporters in a video published by the Russian state news agency RIA: “They’ve bitten us – we will destroy them. In the very near future we’ll show them the kind of vengeance they’ve never even dreamt of.”

Earlier, Kadyrov posted on Telegram that the drone strike had set fire to the roof of what he said was an empty building at the “special forces university” in the city of Gudermes. There were no casualties, he said.

Four people have been killed and another six injured by Russian bombing overnight on Ukraine‘s two largest cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.

Another two were killed and seven injured in Russian shelling on Kherson city in southern Ukraine in the morning, a local governor said.

Russian forces have been attacking Ukrainian regions almost every night with drones and the Ukrainian military reported that overnight they had shot down 26 out of 48 drones launched.

Four people were killed in Kharkiv in the early hours of Tuesday in Russia’s bombardment of the city’s Osnovianskyi district, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said on his Telegram messaging channel.

In Kyiv, falling debris from a destroyed Russian drone injured six people and set a residential building on fire, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said.

One of the people injured by debris in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district was taken to hospital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel. He said several cars were also on fire.

In the morning attacks on Kherson, governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on the Telegram messenger that the victims of the Russian shelling were a 62-year-old man and a 66-year-old woman.

Further details have been released about President Volodymyr Zelensky’s agreement with South Korea’s president to step up contacts between their nations at all levels to develop countermeasures and a strategy to respond to North Korea’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.

In a phone call with President Yoon Suk Yeol, Zelensky said the two leaders also agreed to strengthen exchanges of intelligence and expertise.

Zelensky said he shared data about the deployment of 3,000 North Korean troops to Russian training grounds near the combat zone, with their presence expected to increase to approximately 12,000.

“We agreed to strengthen intelligence and expertise exchange, intensify contacts at all levels, especially the highest, in order to develop an action strategy and countermeasures to address this escalation, and to engage our mutual partners in cooperation,” he said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday he had talked to South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol and discussed the involvement of North Korean military forces in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The conclusion is clear – this war is becoming internationalized, extending beyond two countries,” Zelensky said on X social network.

Zelensky said the two leaders agreed to strengthen intelligence, exchange expertise and intensify contacts at all levels.

At least four people were killed and another six injured in Russia’s multi-wave overnight attacks on Ukraine’s two largest cities of Kharkiv and Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said today.

Russia attacks Ukrainian regions almost every night with drones and the Ukrainian military reported that last night they shot down 26 out of 48 drones launched.

Four people were killed in Kharkiv after midnight in Russia’s bombardment of the city’s Osnovianskyi district, mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

Nato chief Mark Rutte joined Seoul, Washington and Kyiv in confirming Pyongyang’s dispatch of troops to Russia, saying North Korean military units had been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region near the Ukraine border.

“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region,” he said yesterday. The deployment of North Korean troops to Kursk is “also a sign of [president] Putin’s growing desperation,” he said.

“The deployment of North Korean troops represents: one, a significant escalation in the DPRK’s [North Korea’s official name] ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war. Two, yet another breach of UN Security Council resolutions. And three, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war,” Mr Rutte said yesterday after Nato officials and diplomats were briefed by a South Korean delegation.

Ukraine’s air defences downed 26 of 48 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian military said this morning.

The air force said it lost track of 20 drones and one more returned to Russia.

The soldiers were believed to be heading for the border region of Kursk, where Moscow recently suffered defeats and has been struggling to push back Ukrainian troops, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Sigh said on Monday.

On Tuesday, South Korean lawmakers, briefed by the country’s spy agency, said some high-ranking North Korean military officials and troops deployed to Russia might move to the frontline.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and secretary of state Antony Blinken will meet with their South Korean counterparts on Thursday in Washington.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said Mr Austin and defence minister Kim Yong-hyun will discuss the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine.

Warning that there will be no limitations on the use of US-provided weapons on those forces, Ms Singh said: “If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war. This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”