Ukraine war briefing: Bomb shatters historic landmark in Kharkiv

Prized Derzhprom building in Kharkiv damaged in attacks injuring 19; North Korean foreign minister heads to Russia as Nato chief says Kim Jong-un’s troops are in Kursk. What we know on day 979

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A Russian guided bomb attack on Kharkiv on Monday shattered much of the Derzhprom building, one of the most celebrated landmarks in Ukraine’s second city, dating from the 1920s and noted by Unesco. Six people were injured in the 9pm strike, adding to 13 wounded in an earlier overnight bomb attack on the city. Eight were hurt in a rocket attack in the city of Chuhuiv just to the south-east, officials said.

In the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, a Russian missile struck a three-storey residential building, killing one person and wounding at least 11. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, deplored the attack on his home town, as well as on Kharkiv, and called for renewed efforts to force Vladimir Putin to halt the war.

In the southern Kherson region, a drone attack killed a medic, the regional governor said. Three people were killed in Kherson region on Sunday.

The Russian army advanced 478 sq km into Ukrainian territory in October, a record since March 2022 in the first weeks of the war, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). Two-thirds of the Russian gains that the news agency calculated were in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian forces are a few kilometres from Pokrovsk, which they are approaching from the south and east. They have also gained territory at the north of the front, having seized more than 40 sq km near Kupiansk.

North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, left Pyongyang on Monday to visit Russia, state media KCNA said on Tuesday. It came as the Nato chief, Mark Rutte, said after a briefing with South Korean intelligence officials that he could confirm North Korean military units had been deployed in Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops occupy territory. He called the involvement of Kim Jong-un’s regime “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war” and “a sign of Putin’s growing desperation”.

Zelenskyy on Monday said he expected 12,000 North Korean soldiers on Russian territory “soon” as he met with Nordic leaders in Iceland. He warned that about 3,000 North Korean soldiers and officers were “already on Russian territory” and Russia would use them in its war on Ukraine.

The Pentagon said North Korea has sent 10,000 troops to eastern Russia, up from its previous estimate of 3,000. The US president, Joe Biden, called the situation “very dangerous”. Matthew Miller, US state department spokesman, said Washington had also made clear to China “that we are concerned about it and that they ought to be concerned about this destabilising action by two of its neighbours, Russia and North Korea”.

Britain on Monday imposed sanctions on three Russian agencies and three senior figures at the agencies who it said were trying to use disinformation to “undermine and destabilise Ukraine and its democracy”. Britain’s foreign ministry said the Social Design Agency and its partner company Structura had attempted to deliver a series of “interference operations” designed to weaken international support for Ukraine.

Croatia will buy up to 50 Leopard tanks from Germany in a transaction that includes sending some of its older tanks and other military equipment to Ukraine, the Croatian ministry of defence said on Monday. It added that the value of the older eastern European-made tanks and equipment would be deducted from the total price for the new Leopard 2A8 tanks that Croatia will buy. Since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Croatia has delivered military aid worth more than €200m to Ukraine.