Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s bombing campaign puts ‘all options on the table’, says Trump official

China will extend visa-free travel to ordinary passport holders from Russia on a trial basis, its foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

The visa exemption will be for a period of a year from September 15, with entry to China of no more than 30 days.

North Korea casualties fighting for Russia in Ukraine war have been estimated at 2,000, a South Korea spy agency reportedly said.

Kim Jong Un has heavily backed his ally Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine, supplying over 15,000 troops for deployment in Russia’s Kursk region.

Isolated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is set to be treated diplomatically on a par with Russian president Vladimir Putin during their visits to China, intelligence officials in South Korea have said.

North Korea observers are paying keen attention to the way China’s Xi interacts with Kim and Putin, the two aggressors in the Ukraine war. The three leaders, despite all being close allies, have never before held a trilateral meeting.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service today said Kim will likely receive special protocol and security measures akin to those given to Putin, said Lee Seong Kweun, a lawmaker who attended the meeting.

Kim may also be seen standing alongside Xi and Putin on the rostrum in Tiananmen Square during tomorrow’s military parade, the South Korean spy agency said.

It is also anticipated that Kim will hold bilateral meetings with the Chinese and Russian leaders and interact with other heads of state at a reception and cultural performance as he seeks to further break out of isolation and expand his diplomatic footing, Lee said.

This is Kim’s first visit to China since 2019 and the fifth visit to the neighbouring nation in total since he inherited power upon his father’s death in late 2011.

Kim possibly meeting Xi bilaterally as well and holding trilateral meeting with Xi and Putin. The three leaders have met bilaterally previously but have yet to hold a trilateral meeting.

North Korea has released a documentary about its soldiers’ exploits fighting for Russia in the Ukraine war, including accounts of soldiers blowing themselves up with grenades.

In the documentary aired on Sunday night by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central Television, two young North Korean soldiers, Yun Jong-hyuk, 20, and Woo Hi-Hyuk, 19, hugged each other and used a grenade to kill themselves after being ambushed by the Ukrainian forces. North Korean officials have labeled such battlefield suicides as “heroic sacrifices”.

Kim Jong Un has heavily backed his ally Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine, supplying over 15,000 troops for deployment in Russia’s Kursk region.

Another episode recounted in the documentary features a 22-year-old soldier killing himself with a grenade after being wounded, “heroically” stopping his comrades from trying to save him.

Ukrainian officials have previously described North Korean soldiers using suicide as a method of avoiding being captured alive.

The documentary listed hundreds of North Korean war dead, touting their sacrifices as “the start of their bright eternal life.”

The Russian leader, who is attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) forum in China’s Tianjin City, said he would discuss the Alaska meeting with leaders attending the summit.

The plane landed safely at Plovdiv International Airport in the country’s south-central region on Monday.

The commission’s spokesperson Arianna Podestà said that Ms Von der Leyen would continue her planned tour of the seven European Union nations bordering Russia and Belarus.

“We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,” Ms Podestà said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin dangled the prospect of peace in Ukraine when he met with his US counterpart Donald Trump in Alaska’s Anchorage last month.

The two met on 15 August, but did not agree a ceasefire. Instead, it was Trump who changed his tune – adopting the Russian line that a ceasefire wasn’t necessary, and only a full peace agreement could end the war.

In the weeks that followed, Russia has significantly amped up its missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, a development Trump’s treasury secretary Scott Bessent has called “despicable”.

This graph from the Institute for the Study of War shows the spike in Russian attacks after the summit between Putin and Trump.

That period includes three overnight bombardments that involved 500 or more drones plus missiles, and one of the most devastating air raids on Kyiv since the war began.