Ukraine news – live: Russia supplied with artillery shells by North Korea, US says – The Independent

The US has collected evidence which indicates that North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells for its war in Ukraine, it has been revealed.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby explained on Wednesday that Pyongyang was attempting to obscure the shipments by funneling them through countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
“It is not an insignificant number of shells, but we don’t believe they are in such a quantity that the would change the momentum of the war,” Mr Kirby said.
It comes afyer Russian president Vladimir Putin resumed Moscow’s participation in a UN-brokered deal allowing Ukrainian grain exports after he was urged by western officials to “stop using food as a weapon.”
Russia suspended its involvement in the Black Sea Grain Initiative over the weekend, saying it could not guarantee the safety of civilian ships because of a major drone attack on Russian vessels in the Bay of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula – an area Mr Putin annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Thanks for following our live updates, we are pausing our coverage for the evening.
Pakistan has denounced statements from a Russian senator that accused Islamabad of helping Ukraine develop nuclear bombs, calling them illogical.
Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs said on Tuesday that the statements were baseless and sought an explanation from its Russian counterpart.
“We are surprised by such an unfounded and baseless statement. It is without any rationale, and is entirely inconsistent with the spirit of Pakistan-Russia relations,” foreign office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in a statement.
Shweta Sharma reports:
Ukrainian specialists travelled to Pakistan to discuss nuke technologies, claimed a Russian senator
Russian president Vladimir Putin has been urged by Western officials “stop using food as a weapon” after Moscow agreed to rejoin the UN-brokered deal allowing Ukraine grain exports.
Russia suspended its involvement in the Black Sea Grain Initiative over the weekend, saying it could not guarantee the safety of civilian ships crossing the Black Sea because of an attack on its fleet there.
The Kremlin claimed there was a major drone strike on Russian vessels in the Bay of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula – an area Mr Putin annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – part of which it said had originated from within the grain export corridor. Ukraine has said that was a false pretext.
Read our full report here:
Russia suspended its involvement in the Black Sea Grain initiative over the weekend
Vladimir Putin has said Moscow reserved the right to withdraw again from a UN-brokered grain shipment deal that it had returned to – but that if it did so, it would not impede grain shipments from Ukraine to Turkey.
In televised remarks, Putin said that, in return for rejoining the agreement, Russia had demanded guarantees that Ukraine would not launch attacks from parts of the Black Sea covered by the deal.
The US has collected evidence which indicates that North Korea is covertly supplying Russia with a “significant” number of artillery shells for its war in Ukraine, it has been revealed.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby explained on Wednesday that Pyongyang was attempting to obscure the shipments by funneling them through countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Our indications are that the DPRK is covertly supplying and we are going to monitor to see whether the shipments are received,” Kirby said.
“It is not an insignificant number of shells, but we don’t believe they are in such a quantity that the would change the momentum of the war,” he said.
“And it’s certainly not going to change our calculus … or with so many of our allies and partners about the kinds of capabilities we’re going to continue to provide the Ukrainians.”
Vladimir Putin has been “weakened” by the invasion of Ukraine but the world should not expect a leadership change in Moscow “anytime soon”, Western officials believe.
The Russian military has suffered a series of humiliating blows on the battlefield in recent weeks, with the momentum behind Ukraine’s armed forces heading into the winter.
But it comes amid concerns among some in the West Mr Putin may resort to nuclear weapons as hopes of an easy victory remain out of reach.
Western officials believe while Mr Putin has been weakened, with reports of a growing unhappiness in relation to the conflict, there is little doubt the war will continue to drag on.
Dominic McGrath reports:
‘This is going to continue to be a long, difficult bloody conflict,’ a western official said.
Russia has claimed that avoiding a nuclear clash was its first priority, but accused the West of “encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction”.
The Russian foreign ministry said it feared the five declared nuclear powers were teetering “on the brink of a direct armed conflict.”
“We are strongly convinced that in the current complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining our national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military clash of nuclear powers,” the ministry said in a statement.
Foreign secretary James Cleverly has urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to “stop using food as a weapon” after he froze and later resumed Moscow’s participation in a UN-brokered deal allowing Ukraine grain exports.
Taking to Twitter on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Cleverly added: “He has realised he shot himself in the foot by stopping ships from entering Ukrainian ports to load up grain to feed the world.
“The Grain Initiative must now be extended beyond November without further Russian impediments.”
President Vladimir Putin has called for the weapons used by Russia‘s military to be modernised.
“Weapons must constantly, continuously improve and remain effective. To achieve this, I repeat, it is important to ensure that there is active competition between manufacturers and developers,” Putin told a meeting of his co-ordination council.
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(FILE) Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via videoconference
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