Ukraine war live: South Korea helps interrogate first North Koreans captured in Kursk

Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson says the solution to ending the war in Ukraine is for the country to join Nato.

Speaking to the Lithuanian news platform Delfi, Mr Johnson said the West must convey to Russian president Vladimir Putin that “Russia is no longer an empire.”

“What Putin is doing is archaic and barbaric, and he needs to understand that Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania – none of these countries are part of the Russian imperium anymore, and nor is Ukraine. It’s over,” the former UK prime minister said, adding: “No more empire, Vladimir, you f**king idiot!”

“I don’t hear anyone saying that when this catastrophe is over, the solution should be Ukraine’s membership in NATO. People have stopped talking about it. And I think it’s a big loss because the West is retreating again,” he said.

Taliban-led Afghanistan emerged as the largest importer of flour from Russia in 2024, according to a new report by the Kremlin’s state agricultural export agency Agroexport.

The report notes that Afghanistan’s purchases doubled last year to about $80 million compared to numbers in 2023.

This is in line with the Taliban’s growing ties with Russia, including Moscow’s steps to officially recognise the regime.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said the country’s military has captured two North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region of Russia, adding that they had survived and were communicating with the Security Service of Ukraine.

“As with all prisoners of war, these two North Korean soldiers are receiving the necessary medical assistance,” Zelensky said on X.

Inflation in Ukraine rose to 12 per cent in 2024, Ukraine’s statistics service Derzhstat has said, considerably higher than the central bank’s most recent estimates in November.

The country’s economy has been hit hard by the Russian invasion with inflation skyrocketing to over 25 per cent in 2022, up from 10 per cent in 2021.

The rate has since steadied, and Ukraine’s National Bank estimated the country would end 2024 at just under 10 per cent. But the new estimates suggest that the target has been missed.

The increasing cost of groceries and electricity have been pointed to as key drivers of inflation.

This week, the president-elect refused to rule out using economic or military force to seize the Panama Canal and (or) wrestle Greenland away from Denmark, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley.

He’s taught Europe an important lesson:

About 23,000 households were left without electricity after Russian shelling of Kherson in southern Ukraine damaged power equipment in the city, the local military administration said on Sunday.

The attack targeted the Dniprovskiy district along the Dnipro River, an area of Kherson that is regularly shelled by Russian troops on the opposite bank.

Kherson’s governor, Oleksandr Prokudin, said Kherson city and around 50 settlements in the surrounding region had been shelled by Russian troops over the past 24 hours.

“The Russian military shelled social infrastructure and residential areas of the region’s settlements, in particular, damaging 2 multi-storey buildings and 8 private houses,” Prokudin said on Telegram.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr earlier on Sunday called on allies to honour their promises to supply Ukraine with weapons, including systems to counter Russian air attacks.