Russia Ukraine war update: Kyiv strikes Russia ‘with kamikaze drones’ as Putin’s troops suffer in Kharkiv

Oil depots were on fire after a drone attack early this morning in the town of Azov in Russia’s Rostov region, the governor of the southern Russian region said.

“According to preliminary data, there are no casualties,” the governor, Vasily Golubev, wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The summit is expected to address what Nato and Nato members can do for Ukraine as it faces unrelenting air and ground attacks from Russia.

They so far have resisted Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s appeals to take his country into the bloc as long as the war is still on.

Nato general secretary Jens Stoltenberg pointed to efforts to bolster Ukraine in the meantime. They include Nato streamlining the eventual membership process for Ukraine, and Nato nations providing updated arms and training to Ukraine’s military, including the US giving it F-16s and bringing Ukrainian pilots to the US for training on the advanced aircraft.

“The idea is to move them so close to membership that when the time comes, when there is consensus, they can become a member straight away,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

However, Russia’s offensive concludes, just taking Ukraine into the alliance will dissuade Vladimir Putin from trying again in the future to conquer Ukraine, the Nato chief claimed.“When the fighting ends, Nato membership” for Ukraine “assures that the war really ends”, he said.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg noted that allies were buying more military equipment from the US. “So Nato is good for US security, but Nato is also good for US jobs.” he said.

Nato members agreed last year to spend at least two per cent of their gross domestic product on defence. The surge in spending reflects the worries about the war in Ukraine.

Poland, at more than four per cent, and tiny Estonia both lead the United States this year in the percentage of their GDP they spend on defence. Both countries border Russia.

Defence spending across European allies and Canada was up nearly 18 per cent this year alone, the biggest increase in decades, according to Nato’s estimated figures released yesterday.

Some countries are concerned about the possible reelection of former president Donald Trump, who has characterised many Nato allies as freeloading on US military spending and said on the campaign trail that he would not defend Nato members that don’t meet defence spending targets.

“Shifting US administrations have had the absolutely valid point to say that US allies are spending too little,” Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg told reporters.

“The good news is that’s changing.”

A record 23 of Nato’s 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance’s defense spending target this year, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised the threat of expanding conflict in Europe.

The estimated figure is a nearly fourfold increase from 2021, when only six nations were meeting the goal. That was before Russian president Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Europeans are doing more for their collective security than just a few years ago,” Mr Stoltenberg said in a speech at the Wilson Center research group.

After the speech, Mr Stoltenberg met at the White House with president Joe Biden. The US president said the alliance has become “larger, stronger and more united than it’s ever been” during Mr Stoltenberg’s tenure.

Mr Biden spoke affectionately of Mr Stoltenberg, calling him “pal” and saying he wished that Stoltenberg, who has been Nato’s secretary general since 2014, could serve another term when the current one expires in October.

“Together, we’ve deterred further Russian aggression in Europe,” Mr Biden said. “We’ve strengthened Nato’s eastern flank, making it clear that we’ll defend every single inch of Nato territory.”

After North Korea, the Kremlin said Vladimir Putin will visit Vietnam tomorrow and on Thursday for talks that are expected to be focused on trade.

The United States, which has spent years strengthening ties and accelerating trade with Vietnam, criticised Mr Putin’s planned visit.

North Korea is under heavy UN Security Council economic sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile programs, while Russia is also grappling with sanctions by the United States and its Western partners over its aggression in Ukraine.

Vladimir Putin said the countries will also expand cooperation in tourism, culture and education.

The visit comes amid growing concerns about an arms arrangement in which Pyongyang provides Moscow with badly needed munitions to fuel Mr Putin’s war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that would enhance the threat posed by Kim Jong Un’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

Military, economic and other exchanges between North Korea and Russia have sharply increased since Mr Kim visited the Russian Far East in September for a meeting with Mr Putin, their first since 2019.

US and South Korean officials have accused the North of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment to help prolong its fighting in Ukraine, possibly in return for key military technologies and aid.

Russian president Vladimir Putin thanked North Korea for supporting his actions in Ukraine and said their countries will co-operate closely to overcome US-led sanctions as he headed to Pyongyang for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Mr Putin’s comments appeared in North Korean state media hours before he was expected to arrive for a two-day visit as the countries deepen their alignment in the face of separate, intensifying confrontations with Washington.

Mr Putin, who will be making his first visit to North Korea in 24 years, said he highly appreciates its firm support of his invasion of Ukraine.

He said the countries would continue to “resolutely oppose” what he described as Western ambitions “to hinder the establishment of a multipolarised world order based on mutual respect for justice”.

Mr Putin also said Russia and North Korea will develop unspecified trade and payment systems “that are not controlled by the West” and jointly oppose sanctions against the countries, which he described as “unilateral and illegal restrictive measures”.