North Korea’s Kim Jong-un set to meet Vladimir Putin; Ukraine recaptures gas and oil rigs in Black Sea
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was travelling to Russia by armoured train to meet President Vladimir Putin, Pyongyang said, with face-to-face talks potentially focused on weapon sales. Experts suggest Putin is seeking artillery shells and anti-tank missiles from North Korea, while Kim is reportedly in search of advanced technology for satellites and nuclear-powered submarines, as well as food aid for his impoverished nation.
A US spokesman said the meeting indicated Putin was desperate over the Ukraine conflict and renewed warnings that any arms deal could trigger US sanctions. “Having to travel across the length of his own country to meet with an international pariah to ask for assistance in a war that he expected to win in the opening month, I would characterise it as him begging for assistance,” state department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
The Ukrainian military said it had recaptured strategic Black Sea gas and oil drilling platforms, the so-called Boyko Towers, that were seized by Russia in 2015. “Russia has been deprived of the ability to fully control the waters of the Black Sea, and this makes Ukraine many steps closer to regaining Crimea,” the Main Intelligence Directorate said.
Ukraine said its troops had regained more territory on the eastern and southern fronts in the past week of its counteroffensive. Deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said in televised comments that Ukraine had retaken nearly 2 square km (0.77 square mile) of land around the eastern city of Bakhmut, captured by Russia in May. She later added on the Telegram messaging app that the Ukrainian army had in the past week also recaptured 4.8 square km in the southern Tavria sector.
The Biden administration is close to approving the shipment of longer-range missiles packed with cluster bombs to Ukraine, giving Kyiv the ability to cause significant damage deeper within Russian-occupied territory, Reuters reported citing four US officials.
The “decision-making process in Germany is moving forward” regarding the supply of Taurus missiles to Kyiv, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said after a meeting with the country’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock. Earlier on Monday, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, had urged Berlin to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine as soon as possible.
Baerbock said Ukraine’s place was in the EU during her unannounced visit to Kyiv on Monday morning. Ukraine can “rely on us and on our understanding of EU enlargement as a necessary geopolitical consequence of Russia’s war,” Baerbock said upon arrival. Ukraine already has candidate status, said Baerbock. “And now we are preparing to take a decision on opening EU accession talks.”
Russia’s Central Election Commission said that the country’s ruling party had won the most votes in elections held in occupied Ukrainian regions, as Kyiv and the west denounced the ballots as a sham. The votes in Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia and on the Crimean peninsula were held as Russian authorities attempt to tighten their grip on territories Moscow illegally annexed a year ago and still does not fully control.
Russia’s military targeted a civilian cargo ship in the Black Sea with “multiple missiles” last month but they were successfully intercepted by Ukrainian forces, Britain said citing intelligence. A vessel in Russia’s Black Sea fleet fired the missiles, which included two Kalibr cruise missiles, towards the southern Ukrainian port of Odessa on 24 August, according to the UK government.
