Key events
Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska said that the ongoing conflict in the country has “pushed [her] close to psychological burnout”.
In an interview with The Telegraph, she said she has had to employ coping mechanisms to maintain a “mental balance”.
She said:
There are moments where I feel I am close to psychological burnout and I understand that I need rest. I try to use the moment effectively, because sometimes when we think we have rest, we don’t.
Zelenska added:
A couple of times I allowed myself to cry when it was unbearably sad but it was something I did consciously because I know I have to dive deep to the bottom to find the power to push and then I can swim again. You have to allow yourself an opportunity to cry it all out.
I think when I am scared I need to physically do something, I can compile a list of things that calm me down, and I’ll go and do those things.
She also said that her greatest hope for Ukraine is that its victory is not pyrrhic and she comes out the other side of the war with her sanity intact.
Russian air defences downed 70 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and Crimea overnight, the RIA news agency cited the Russian defence ministry as saying on Friday.
The ministry also said Russian forces destroyed six Ukrainian sea drones in the Black Sea
Justin McCurry
Vladimir Putin’s suggestion that Russia could supply weapons to North Korea is “incredibly concerning”, a senior US official has said, days after Putin and the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, signed a defence pact that requires their countries to provide immediate military assistance if either is attacked.
Matthew Miller, a US state department spokesperson, said the provision of Russian weapons to Pyongyang “would destabilise the Korean peninsula, of course, and potentially … depending on the type of weapons they provide … violate UN security council resolutions that Russia itself has supported”.
The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and South Korea’s foreign ministry said the treaty between Russia and North Korea posed a “serious threat” to peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. Blinken said the US would consider “various measures” in response to the pact, which elevated ties between the sanctions-hit states to their highest level since the cold war.
South Korea summoned the Russian ambassador to protest against the pact with North Korea, as border tensions continued to rise.
Seoul has also said it would consider providing arms to Ukraine, triggering an angry response from the Russian ambassador, Georgy Zinoviev, who said attempts to blackmail and threaten Russia were unacceptable, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
In his meeting with Zinoviev on Friday, the South’s vice foreign minister, Kim Hong-kyun, condemned the treaty and called on Russia to immediately halt military cooperation with North Korea.
Opening summary
Good morning, and welcome to our Ukraine blog where the fallout from Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea and Vietnam continues.
South Korea has summoned the Russian ambassador to protest over its pact with North Korea. Two days ago the Russian president signed an agreement vowing mutual defence with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on a state visit to Pyongyang.
South Korea’s government has denounced the agreement as a threat to the South’s security and said it will consider providing arms to Ukraine to help it fight Russia’s invasion.
Earlier on Friday, Kim’s powerful sister issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border, underscoring rising tensions on the peninsula. More on that shortly, in other news:
Ukraine has said is dispatching reinforcements to Chasiv Yar, the embattled strategic hilltop town in the eastern Donetsk region, a vital flashpoint whose capture could accelerate Russian advances deeper in the industrial territory.
The US will send the latest Patriot missiles “rolling off the production line” to Ukraine instead of other countries that ordered them, the White House said on Thursday. “We’re going to reprioritise the deliveries of these exports,” said John Kirby, the national security council spokesman. It also applies to Nasams, another type of air defence missile. “Deliveries of these missiles to other countries that are currently in the queue will have to be delayed,” Kirby said, though deliveries to Taiwan and Israel would not be affected.
Ukrainian drones struck a Russian airbase in a second night of attacks on the Krasnodar region, reports online said. Russian emergency officials, writing on the Telegram messaging app, confirmed three municipalities of Krasnodar came under “massive attack”. The Russian journalist-run Astra social media channel reported that Yeysk, home to a military airfield, was hit by drones and there were fires afterwards, and posted eyewitness videos. Nasa satellite fire monitoring indicated fires or hotspots at the airbase. The Krasnodar region sits across the Kerch strait from Crimea.
Ukraine can use US-supplied weapons to hit Russian forces that are firing on Ukrainian troops anywhere across the border into Russia and not just in Russian territory near Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, the Pentagon said. “It’s self-defence and so it makes sense for them to be able to do that,” Ryder said.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced measures to protect Ukraine’s energy system, including protection for power plants under Russian fire and the development of alternative and renewable energy sources. Drone and missile strikes have knocked out half of generating capacity since March, according to official figures. Attacks overnight into Thursday hit four regions and cut power to more than 218,000 consumers, the energy ministry said.
Zelenskiy outlined plans to develop solar energy and energy storage facilities, “decentralised energy capacities”, and a schedule for critical infrastructure sites to come up with alternative energy sources. The work, he said, must be completed before winter and its increased energy demand.
Russians on Thursday reported problems with processing payments at major banks after a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber-attack, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported. The paper said the Telegram messaging app and major mobile phone networks were also affected. The IT Army of Ukraine, a volunteer hacker group, claimed responsibility.
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