Russia Ukraine War Latest: Moscow Responds to Trump’s Warnings Against Putin as 1,000 North Koreans Killed in Kursk

A landmine clearance charity will be given £7m to continue its “lifesaving” work in Ukraine and Afghanistan.

UK Government cash for the Hazardous Area Life-support Organization (Halo) Trust will enable the charity to make land safe for farming in Ukraine and restore basic services affected by the threat of explosives in Afghanistan.

Development Secretary Anneliese Dodds also announced a further £250,000 for a Halo project, which aims to dispose of 165 tonnes of unusable, unsafe ammunition and explosives from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, Africa.

British Defense Secretary John Healey has told the Commons that Russia is the biggest external threat to Britain, warning that aggression from Vladimir Putin “will not be tolerated at home or in Ukraine”.

The defense minister said Russia was “dangerous but fundamentally weak”, referring to the casualties it had suffered during the war in Ukraine and its decision to call in troops from North Korea.

President Donald Trump has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to Russia’s nearly three-year-old war against Ukraine, threatening to impose further sanctions on Moscow if the Russian leader does not agree.

In a statement posted on his Truth Social platformTrump said he “didn’t seek to hurt Russia” and expressed “love” for the Russian people while boasting of his “very good relationship” with Putin — who in 2016 ordered what the Justice Department called a “sweeping and systematic” crackdown to interfere in the presidential election on Trump’s behalf.

British Defense Secretary John Healey has told MPs that P8 Poseidon and Rivet Joint aircraft will join the Nato operation to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea.

RFA Proteus has also been deployed to monitor “offshore infrastructure”.

Britain said it monitored a Russian spy ship in the English Channel in recent days and would strengthen its response to covert operations by Russian ships and aircraft in a bid to protect undersea cables.

Defense Secretary John Healey said the Yantar, a Russian spy vessel used for intelligence and mapping of critical infrastructure on the seabed, entered British waters on Monday and the Royal Navy tracked it for two days until it entered Dutch waters. Russia’s embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain,” said Mr. Healey yesterday. “We are strengthening our response to ensure that Russian ships and aircraft cannot operate covertly near UK or NATO territory.”

Concerns about the potential sabotage of power cables, telecommunications links and gas pipelines have grown following a series of outages in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Britain decided to send maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft to help Nato’s efforts to protect cables in the Baltic Sea, Sir John announced, adding that they would also deploy an advanced AI system to help protect undersea infrastructure.

Ukrainians are using recordings of cat noises to lure Vladimir Putin’s forces into explosive traps, a Russian soldier has claimed.

With the Ukrainian army’s ferocity and ingenuity often proven in its success in defending itself against Russia’s massive invading force, it has now been claimed that it is turning to an unusual tactic to appeal to the Russians’ reported fondness for cats.

A North Korean soldier captured by Ukraine has said he did not know who he would fight or where he would fight.

In the recording of the interview, broadcast by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X, the soldier says he arrived with Russia along with 100 other North Koreans on a ship before being later transported by train.

The soldier, who joined the army as a 17-year-old as a conscript, said some of his countrymen were trained on heavy Russian military equipment – but he did not undergo this training.

“I didn’t know before I came to Russia that I wanted to fight here, in Russia, and I didn’t even know who we were fighting against,” the soldier told Ukrainian investigators.

“There were many casualties when I was there alone, starting from the battle on January 3. In general, it is difficult to answer such large numbers.”

When asked what he knew about the world outside North Korea, he said: “Not much.” Asked what he knows about South Korea, he said, “I only know that South Korea has fewer mountains than North Korea.”

Donald Trump called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “stand down now and stop this ridiculous war” in a post on his Truth Social website yesterday.

He said he had no desire to hurt Russia – which he noted had played a major role in securing Allied victory against Nazi Germany in World War II – and has a good relationship with Mr. Putin, however, warned of punishment if the war did not stop soon.

“If we don’t make a ‘deal’ and soon, I have no choice but to place high levels of taxes, tariffs and sanctions on everything sold by Russia to the US and various other participating countries.” said Mr. Trump.

Trump has been skeptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration gave Ukraine in weapons and other equipment to defend itself. He has often spoken of his desire to end the war, saying on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. It hasn’t happened.

A pro-Russian candidate is currently leading the Romanian polls four months before a crucial election in May.

Calin Georgescu, the far-right candidate who opposes Romanian support for Ukraine in its defense against Putin’s invasion, is voters’ top choice ahead of a repeat presidential election.

The European Union state’s highest court annulled the initial presidential election two days before the second round of voting due to allegations of Russian interference.

The election of Georgescu would be a critical blow for Ukraine, which has relied on Romania to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta, train Ukrainian fighter pilots and donate a Patriot air defense battery to Kiev.

Georgescu is critical of NATO and has praised Romania’s fascist leaders from the 1930s. The European Court of Justice said he had benefited from a social media campaign likely orchestrated by Russia – charges Moscow denied.

But the latest polls for the first round show that Georgescu will get 38 percent of the vote, with Crin Antonescu, head of the pro-European governing coalition, sitting on just 25 percent.

British troops are looking after each other on a “massive road trip” to Romania as part of a major Nato training exercise.

More than 2,500 British personnel are moving across Europe by land, air and sea to take part in Steadfast Dart, Nato’s biggest planned exercise of the year.

The exercise is intended to demonstrate the alliance’s readiness, capacity and commitment to defend NATO territories.

It comes ahead of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Friday, with much of the exercise taking place in Romania, which borders Ukraine.