Ukraine-Russia warfare newest: Putin hosts Slovak PM as Moscow video reveals ‘Australian POW’s interrogation’

Ukraine’s air force said it had shot down 47 out of 72 Russia-launched drones across the country.

In a statement on Telegram this morning, it said that an additional 25 drones had not reached targets and were “locationally lost”.

Russia’s Gazprom said that it would send 42.1 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine this morning, a volume in line with recent days.

Nato secretary general Mark Rutte said he considered the sometimes harsh criticism of German chancellor Olaf Scholz by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to be unjustified, news wire DPA reported.

Although Germany has been a vital ally of Ukraine, its hesitation in providing long-range Taurus cruise missiles has been a source of frustration in Kyiv, which is battling a foe armed with a powerful array of long-range weaponry.

“I have often told Zelenskiy that he should stop criticising Olaf Scholz, because I think it is unfair,” DPA quoted Mr Rutte on Monday as saying in an interview.

Mr Rutte also said that he, unlike Mr Scholz, would supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles and would not set limits on their use.

“In general, we know that such capabilities are very important for Ukraine,”Mr Rutte said, adding that it was not up to him to decide what allies should deliver.

After a November telephone call by Mr Scholz with Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin in November, Mr Zelensky said it had opened a Pandora’s box that undermined efforts to isolate the Russian leader and end the war in Ukraine with a “fair peace”.

Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian fuel depot for the second time in just over a week on Sunday, according to a senior Russian regional official, as part of a “massive” cross-border attack on fuel and energy facilities that Kyiv says supply Moscow’s military.

The strikes came days after Russia launched sweeping attacks on Ukraine’s already battered energy grid, threatening to plunge thousands of homes into darkness as winter tightens its grip over the region, and as Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbor nears the three-year mark.

A fire broke out at the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal in Russia’s southern Oryol region, local Gov. Andrey Klychkov said in a post on the Telegram messaging app, adding Russian forces downed 20 drones targeting “fuel and energy infrastructure” in the province.

The Australian government is making urgent inquiries after a video on social media appeared to show a citizen captured by Russian authorities.

In the video, a 32-year-old man identified himself as Oscar Jenkins, a biology teacher from Australia. Mr Jenkins’s hands were bound by tape as he answered questions about his identity in English and broken Russian. In the footage circulating online, the man, dressed in military fatigue, could be seen being struck on his head with a cane, as he said: “I’m Australian…Oscar Jenkins. 32 years old … I study biology.”

“This is concerning news, and we’re working through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to provide support, including, for this gentleman, trying to ascertain the details and the facts which are there,” Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese told reporters on Monday morning.

The acting foreign affair minister Mark Dreyfus, meanwhile urged Russia to treat Mr Jenkins as per international laws.

“We urge the Russian government to fully adhere to its obligations under international humanitarian law, including with respect to prisoners of war. Our immediate priority is understanding where Mr Jenkins is and confirming his wellbeing,” he said.

In a major reshuffle, Volodymyr Zelensky has announced replacing Sergiy Korsunsky as the country’s ambassador to Japan.

On Friday, the Ukrainian president approved appointment of 30 new ambassadors including the envoys to China and Lithuania. However, Mr Korsunsky’s successor in Japan has not yet been announced. He is expected to stay in the country till February, he told NHK.

Mr Korsunsky, named as ambassador to Japan in 2020, has been actively campaigning across the Asian nation, seeking support for his country and had in past expressed gratitude for the monetary donations delivered to the Ukrainian embassy in Ukraine.

Through the supply of troops and weapons, North Korea is aiding Moscow in the areas it needs the most support, said a Canadian general.

“North Koreans are not only replacing some Russian personnel but they are also making up for the lack of munitions and other assets that Russia either can’t produce on its own or can’t replace as fast as needed to sustain a war of attrition like this one,” Major General Greg Smith, director-general of international security policy with Canada’s Department of National Defence told The Japan Times.

“This means that North Koreans are physically fighting and dying for Russia, which is a very troubling development that highlights the growing internationalization of the conflict,” Mr Smith told the outlet.

The Ukrainian military intelligence agency said at least 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded, while a US official suggested the figure for North Korean casualties was in the “several hundreds”.

Ukraine’s security service has named a Russian general it suspects of ordering a missile strike on a hotel in eastern Ukraine in August and said he acted “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of” Reuters.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement on Friday that Colonel General Alexei Kim, a deputy chief of Russia’s General Staff, approved the strike that killed Reuters safety adviser Ryan Evans and wounded two of the agency’s journalists on 24 August.

In a statement posted on Telegram messenger the SBU said it was notifying Mr Kim in absentia that he was an official suspect in its investigation into the strike on the Sapphire Hotel in Kramatorsk, a step in Ukrainian criminal proceedings that can later lead to charges.

In a separate, 15-page notice of suspicion, in which the SBU set out findings from its investigation, the agency said that the decision to fire the missile was made “with the motive of deliberately killing employees of the international news agency Reuters who were engaged in journalistic activities in Ukraine”.

The document, which was published on the website of the General Prosecutor’s Office on Friday, said that Mr Kim had received intelligence that Reuters staff were staying in Kramatorsk. It added that Kim would have been “fully aware that the individuals were civilians and not participating in the armed conflict”.

The Russian defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment on the SBU’s findings and has not replied to previous questions about the attack. The Kremlin also did not respond to a request for comment.

Russian forces captured two villages in Ukraine, one in Kharkiv region in the northeast and one in eastern Donetsk region, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.

Donetsk region is where Moscow is concentrating most of its efforts to seize two cities.

Russian forces, making steady progress across Donetsk region, are moving on the towns of Pokrovsk, a logistics centre and site of an important coking colliery, and appear to be closing in on Kurakhove, farther south.

The Defence Ministry statement said troops had taken control of Lozova, near the town of Kupiansk, in an area north of Donetsk region also under Russian pressure in recent weeks. The village of Sontsivka, north of Kurakhove, was also captured.

The ministry on Saturday announced the capture of another village near Kurakhove, Kostiantynopolske.

The Ukraine military’s general staff made no mention of those villages falling into Russian hands, but said Sontsivka was in a sector subject to 26 Russian attacks in the past 24 hours. The general staff also reported heavy fighting near Pokrovsk, with 34 Russian attempts to pierce defences.

The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Sontsivka was under Russian control.

Russian reports have described intensified pressure on Kurakhove.