Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy prepared to offer swap of seized Kursk land

North Korea has sent about 200 long-range artillery guns to Russia, the South Korean news agency Yonhap has reported, quoting the defence ministry in Seoul. The type was not specified, but there have been other reports in recent weeks of Russia receiving Koksan self-propelled artillery guns from Kim Jong-un’s regime.

The ministry also estimated North Korea had sent about 11,000 troops to support Russia, with 300 of them since killed and 2,700 wounded. “There is the possibility of [the North] additionally supplying troops, weapons and ammunition going forward,” the ministry said in a briefing to the parliamentary defence committee. The continuing role of North Korean troops in Ukraine has been unclear for several weeks. South Korea’s National Intelligence Service last week said they had been pulled back from the frontline in Kursk amid heavy losses, Justin McCurry reported. Volodymyr Zelenskyy then quickly countered that the North Koreans were back in battle.

Poland’s army said a Russian Su-24MR bomber flying from Kaliningrad violated Polish airspace for one minute 12 seconds and flew up to 6.5km into its territory on Tuesday. Poland said the Russian army blamed a navigation system failure. It came a day after Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, announced record-high spending focused on security and spoke of the need to “protect the Baltic Sea from acts of diversion and sabotage”.

Ukraine’s defence ministry launched a recruitment drive for young people on Tuesday, encouraging 18- to 24-year-olds to volunteer to serve in the military for a year for the equivalent of about $24,000 plus large bonuses and subsidised mortgages and rents. Ukrainians can be conscripted only once they turn 25. The under-25 volunteer contracts also offer a 12-month exemption from mobilisation when completed.

Ukrainian natural gas production facilities were damaged in a heavy Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s central Poltava region over Tuesday night, officials, said on Tuesday. Ukraine hit a refinery in Russia’s Saratov region about 500km (300 miles) from Ukraine’s border, and there were reports of an attack on Engels, an industrial city in the Saratov region with the main base of Russia’s nuclear-capable strategic bombers located nearby.