Ukraine-Russia conflict newest: North Korea troops may ‘all be dead or wounded by April’ as a consequence of Russian ways

At least 12 Indians have been killed while serving in Russia’s armed forces, India’s foreign ministry said on Friday.

Another 18 are still serving in the army – but Russia has categorised 16 of them as “missing”.

Last year, India said it had uncovered a major human trafficking network which was luring young men to Russia with the promise of jobs – before forcing them into fighting Russia’s war with Ukraine.

At least three people have been killed in a Russian missile attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Friday, the regional governor said.

The attack damaged a residential building and an educational facility, he added on the Telegram messaging app.

The visit comes just days before Donald Trump enters the White House, potentially signalling a shift in US support for Ukraine’s war effort in favour of a push for a peace deal.

In a sign of the dangers facing Ukrainians on a daily basis, reports from Kyiv indicated a Russian drone flying over the city shortly after Sir Keir and Volodymyr Zelensky laid flowers at a site of remembrance for those killed since the 2022 invasion.

The Kyiv Independent reported explosions were heard during an air raid alert.

Read the full report:

A French patrol aircraft was the victim of Russian intimidation in the Baltic Sea, French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Friday.

The plane was locked onto by the radar of an S400 ground-to-air defence system, Mr Lecornu explained.

“This aggressive Russian action is unacceptable,” he added in a post on X.

Russian units fighting in Ukraine which were previously considered “elite” are now becoming “increasingly obsolete” as a result of Russia’s strategy of throwing waves of troops into battle that has turned the frontline into a “meat grinder”, a leading war monitor has said.

Army formations which once carried out specialised tactical tasks in their assault on Ukrainians are now “understrength”, and reliant on infantry-led assaults which fail to deploy any “unique tactics”, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said.

Once considered “elite”, the units are “now essentially functioning as understrength motorised rifle units, relying on infantry-led frontal assaults to make tactical gains as opposed to employing any sort of doctrinally unique tactics,” the US-based think tank said in an update on Thursday.

The use of North Korean troops in the “highly attritional” infantry-led assaults is also creating difficulties in integrating Kim Jong-un’s troops into the Russian army.

As North Korean losses mount, read our report on Russian war tactics from November:

Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian has touched down in Moscow to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Russian state news has reported.

The pair will sign a strategic partnership between the countries in the first visit by the new Iranian president, after his predecessor died in a helicopter crash last year.

Pezeshkian and Putin will discuss bilateral ties and international issues before signing the treaty, the TASS news agency reported.

The 20-year Russia-Iran agreement will include provisions for closer defence cooperation. Russia has made significant use of Iranian drones during its war on Ukraine, and the US accused Tehran of delivering close-range ballistic missiles to Russia.

Tehran has denied supplying drones or missiles to Russia, while Moscow has declined to confirm whether it has received them.

Russian forces have retaken 63.2 per cent of the territory captured by Ukraine in its western Kursk region, the Russian defence ministry claimed on Friday.

Moscow claims to have recaptured four settlements in the first two weeks of January, although the reports have not been independently verified.

Ukrainian troops staged a surprise incursion on August 6 last year, seizing territory which offers Kyiv a potential bargaining chip on any future talks on ending the war.

Russia does not expect the US to soften sanctions on Russian oil when president-elect Donald Trump takes office, the Kremlin has said.

It comes after Mr Trump’s choice for treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said he “100 per cent” supports raising sanctions on Russian oil producers if the incoming president asked him to.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov says Russia does not expect the US to fundamentally change its stance.

The entire group of North Koreans fighting in Rusia’s Kursk region could be killed or wounded by mid-April, a leading war analyst has said.

If Kim Jong-un’s forces “continue to suffer from their current high loss rate” then their entire 12,000 contingent may be out of action, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.

In early January, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said 3,800 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Kursk.

The IfW says North Korean troops likely suffered around 92 casualties per day since significant fighting began in December.

“North Korean forces will likely continue to suffer a larger ratio of wounded to killed in action – as is typical for armed conflict – and it is unclear if or when injured North Korean soldiers return to combat,” the ISW said.

The Kremlin has said it will study Ukraine’s new 100-year agreement with the United Kingdom, describing the prospect of British military bases in Ukraine as “worrying”.

British prime minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky signed the accord on Thursday, which promises to strengthen the two countries’ security cooperation.

Sir Keir is also considering sending British troops to Ukraine in a peacekeeper role – although this does not appear to have been part of the 100-year deal.

The Kremlin views negatively the prospect of British cooperation with Ukraine in the Sea of Azov – which spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described as Russia’s “internal sea”.