Putin announces new three-day temporary ceasefire for May public holiday
Russia was accused by Kyiv and its European allies of breaching the previous temporary truce on Easter Sunday
Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine next weekend to mark the 80th anniversary of victory in WW2, the Kremlin has said.
The 72-hour ceasefire is the second announced by Moscow in recent weeks, after it declared a 30-hour Easter Sunday truce - which Kyiv and its European allies accused it of breaching.
The Kremlin said the truce will last from the beginning of 8 May and last until the close of 10 May, adding that Russia give an “adequate and effective response” to any Ukrainian violations. Moscow remains ready for peace talks without any preconditions, the statement added.
Mr Putin is looking to win back favour with Donald Trump, after the US president said he was “very disappointed” in Russia’s continued bombardment of civilian areas in Ukraine.
Mr Trump also said he believes Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky is ready to give up Crimea in order to strike a peace deal with Russia.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un confirmed he sent his troops to support Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war efforts in Ukraine for the first time.
Mr Kim said his deployment order was meant to "annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area”.
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North Korea hails its 'heroes' who fought in Ukraine war
North Korea has confirmed its soldiers fought for Russia against Ukrainian forces and has hailed them as heroes.
Under its leader Kim Jong Un’s orders, North Korean military units fought with the same heroism and bravery they would have shown if they were fighting for their own country, state media KCNA cited the Central Military Commission of the North's Workers' Party as saying.
"They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland," KCNA quoted Mr Kim as saying.
North Korea "regards it as an honour to have an alliance with such a powerful state as the Russian Federation," KCNA said.
North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials have said. Lacking armoured vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but adapted quickly.
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South Korea condemns Kim Jong Un's troops deployment in Ukraine war
The confirmation from Kim Jong Un of North Korea’s troop deployment is an "admission of criminal act”, South Korea has said as it condemned North’s “inhumane and immoral” decision.
"With their public admission of the deployment, while claiming they are fully in accordance with international law, they are once again mocking the international community. We strongly condemn this action," South Korea’s foreign ministry said.
"The dispatch of the North Korean troops, along with broader military cooperation between Russia and North Korea, constitutes a grave violation of international norms, including the UN Charter, and UN Security Council resolutions," it said.
Upset with Putin, Trump says he wants Russian president to 'sit down and make a deal'
Donald Trump has said he wants the Russian president Vladimir Putin to “sit down” and make a peace deal on Ukraine.
Yesterday evening, as he left his golf club in New Jersey, Mr Trump told reporters he remained "disappointed" in Russia's attacks.
Mr Trump said of Mr Putin: "I want him to stop shooting, sit down and make a deal." On being asked what he would do if Russia does not stop its attacks, Mr Trump replied: "I have a lot of things that I can do."
On Saturday, the US president said he doubts Mr Putin wants to end the more than three-year-old war, expressing new skepticism a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Mr Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were "very close to a deal”.
North Korea makes first public admission it sent troops to fight for Russia
North Korea confirmed for the first time on Monday that it has sent troops to fight for Russia in the war with Ukraine under the order of dictactor Kim Jong Un.
As Kyiv claims its soldiers continue to cling to parts of Kursk following a Russian counter-offence involving North Korean troops, KCNA state news agency cited the North’s ruling party as saying its contribution showed the "highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship".
The admission comes as top US diplomat Marco Rubio warned the Trump administration would walk away from brokering peace talks if there was no realistic prospect of a deal in sight.
"We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it is not going to come to fruition,” the Secretary of State told NBC News.
"The last week has really been about figuring out how close are these sides really, and are they close enough that this merits a continued investment of our time as a mediator."
North Korea makes first public admission it sent troops to fight for Russia
Putin thanks Kim Jong Un for North Korea's help in Kursk
Russian president Vladimir Putin has thanked North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un for sending troops who he claims have driven Ukrainian soldiers out of Russia’s Kursk region.
In a statement published this morning by the Kremlin, Mr Putin said: "Our Korean friends acted based on a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship. We highly appreciate this and are sincerely grateful personally to the Chairman of State Affairs Comrade Kim Jong Un, the entire leadership and people of the DPRK," the statement said, referring to North Korea by the initials of its formal name.
The remarks come shortly after North Korea said it had sent troops to fight for Russia in the war in Ukraine under orders from Mr Kim and that it had helped regain control of Russian territory occupied by Ukraine.
Trump claims Zelensky ready to give up Crimea after meeting at Pope Francis' funeral
What do we know about North Korea's confirmation of troops in Ukraine war?
In a rare admission of his military operations outside North Korea, Kim Jong Un today confirmed his soldiers fought alongside Russian troops in Ukraine war.
Here’s what North Korea’s top leader has said so far:
- Mr Kim said he signed the order to send the combat troops to Russia under a mutual defence treaty he and Mr Putin signed in June 2024
- The treaty, seen the biggest such defence agreement between North Korea and Russia since the end of the Cold War, requires both nations to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked
- The deployment was meant to "annihilate and wipe out the Ukrainian neo-Nazi occupiers and liberate the Kursk area in cooperation with the Russian armed forces”, Mr Kim said
- "They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honor of the motherland," Mr Kim said
- Mr Kim has said a monument will soon be erected in Pyongyang to mark North Korea's battle feats and that flowers will be laid before the tombstones of the fallen soldiers.
- The North Korean regime will take steps to preferentially treat and take care of the families of the soldiers who took part in the war, Mr Kim said
- Mr Kim did not say how many troops North Korea eventually sent and how many of them had died fighting alongside Russia in the Ukraine war
Ukrainian officials say they will never accept surrender of Crimea
Ukrainian officials are said to have been shocked by a US proposal for a ceasefire deal with Russia that included formal recognition of Moscow’s authority over Crimea.
While Kyiv expects to have to concede territory to Russia, at least temporarily, in the terms of any truce, the idea of a legal or formal surrender of Crimea – which Vladimir Putin annexed illegally in 2014 – would be impossible, officials say.
According to experts, it would require a change to the Ukrainian constitution and a nationwide vote, and it could be considered treason. Lawmakers and the public are firmly opposed to the idea.
"It doesn't mean anything," Oleksandr Merezkho, a lawmaker with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's party, told the Associated Press in Kyiv. "We will never recognise Crimea as part of Russia."
Crimea, a strategic peninsula along the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, was seized by Russia years before the full-scale invasion that began in 2022.
Crimea's recognition by Russia 'impossible to achieve', says expert
The formal recognition of Crimea as Russian territory is “impossible to achieve” and a difficult challenge for Volodymyr Zelensky, a Ukrainian expert has said.
If Ukrainian lawmakers were even to entertain the idea of surrendering Crimea, it would trigger a long, drawn-out legal debate, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former economics minister.
"That's why Russia is pushing it, because they know it's impossible to achieve," he said.
"Anything related to constitutional change gives so much policy and public communication space to Russia," he added. "This is all they want."
Additionally, formal recognition of Crimea would also amount to political suicide for Mr Zelensky and could expose him to legal action in the future, he said.
Mr Mylovanov said that signing a potentially unconstitutional document could be interpreted as high treason.
Zelensky says Ukraine troops still fighting in Kursk and Belgoroed
Volodymyr Zelensky said his soldiers continue to fight Russian forces in the Kursk and Belgorod regions as he issued a direct rebuttal to Vladimir Putin’s claims.
Yesterday, the Russian president telephoned his top commanders in Kursk to congratulate them on "victory" and the end of the operation to expel Ukrainian forces from the region in western Russia, Russian news agencies quoted the Kremlin as saying.
However, Mr Zelensky in his nightly address yesterday said that his troops are holding positions for proper diplomacy.
“Our military continues to operate in the Kursk and Belgorod regions - we maintain our presence in Russia. Pokrovsk, all other directions in Donetsk region - I thank our warriors for resilience. Incredible job!.
“We are keeping all our positions strong so that we have every opportunity for proper diplomacy,” Mr Zelensky said.
The state RIA news agency earlier reported that a Russian military commander told Mr Putin that "the scattered remnants" of the Ukrainian army remaining in Kursk region would soon be destroyed.
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