Ukraine-Russia conflict newest: North Korea struggling mass casualties, says US as Zelensky set for £1bn arms enhance

Russia’s top security agency has arrested several suspects accused of involvement in an alleged Ukrainian plot to assassinate senior military officers, an announcement that follows the killing of a top Russian general last week.

The Federal Security Service, a top KGB successor known under its Russian acronym FSB, said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that it had arrested four Russians accused of making preparations to kill senior defence ministry officials.

The FSB said that the suspected organisers of the attacks were planning to kill one of the senior officers using a remotely controlled car bomb.

It added that another top military official was to be assassinated by an explosive device hidden in an envelope. The agency didn’t name the military officers who were targeted in the alleged plot.

Ukraine, a global producer and exporter of grain and oilseeds, has sent its first batch of food aid to Syria, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Zelensky said that 500 metric tons of wheat flour were already on their way to Syria as part of Ukraine‘s humanitarian “Grain from Ukraine“ initiative in cooperation with the United Nations World Food Programme.

“The wheat flour is planned to be distributed to 33,250 families or 167,000 people, in the coming weeks,” Zelensky said on X, adding: “Each package weighs 15 kilograms and can feed a family of five for one month.”

After the ouster of Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, Ukraine has said it wants to restore relations with Syria.

Kyiv traditionally exports wheat and corn to countries in the Middle East, but not to Syria.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled a plot by Ukraine to kill a high-ranking Russian officer and a pro-Russian war blogger with a bomb hidden in a portable music speaker.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said that a Russian citizen had established contact with an officer from Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency through the Telegram messaging platform.

On the instructions of the Ukrainian intelligence officer, the Russian citizen had then retrieved a bomb from a hiding place in Moscow, the FSB said. The bomb, equivalent to one and a half kg of TNT and packed with ball bearings, was concealed in a portable music speaker, the FSB said.

The FSB did not name the officer or the blogger who was the target of the plot. Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency has not issued a comment on Russia’s claims.

Ukraine is planning to open more than 150 underground educational facilities by September of 2025, deputy education minister Nadiia Kuzmychova said at a briefing yesterday.

Officials in the war-hit country have initiated plans to build 139 underground schools and several dozen underground vocational education institutions, the minister said.

There are currently 79 underground education facilities under active construction and construction is ongoing in frontline regions and areas most affected by Russian shelling, the deputy education minister said.

“We expect the construction of absolutely all facilities to be completed by September 1, 2025,” Ms Kuzmychova said.

Ukraine had to switch to underground schools after the country came under the Russian aerial attacks, which target civilian infrastructure, including education facilities and have claimed thousands of lives so far.

Ukraine is facing an array of issues heading into 2025, underscored by the anxiety of what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for the country’s future. Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what next year could look like

Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralised by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all.

Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders can’t evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counterattack, seven frontline soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive operations.

Since being caught unaware by the lightning Ukrainian incursion, Russia has amassed more than 50,000 troops in the region, including some from its ally North Korea. Precise numbers are hard to obtain, but Moscow’s counterattack has killed and wounded thousands and the overstretched Ukrainians have lost more then 40 per cent of the 984 sq km (380 sq miles) of Kursk they seized in August.

Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential race, off the back of promises to end the war in Eastern Europe in 24 hours – seemingly even if that means forcing Kyiv to cede territory to Russia – appears to spell the end of the West’s long-held policy of helping Ukraine to defeat Putin entirely. Negotiations with Russia, after years of silence, are back on the agenda.

This is causing significant stress in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. As Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, puts it: “The world needs to understand how crucial it is not to end the war on any idea of negotiating with Russia.”

In the two years since its formation, Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Brigade – called “Khartiya” – has gained a reputation not only for prowess in battle but also for its culture of respect and innovative approach to technology.

Khartiya helped to halt Russian forces who launched a surprise incursion last May that threatened to overwhelm Kharkiv, from where many of its original members come.

The brigade was deployed to confront the Russian incursion around the village of Lyptsi, north of Ukraine’s second-largest city, last June; the forested area has since been a pivotal battleground.