Russia-Ukraine war live: Macron refuses to rule out sending troops to Kyiv to fight Putin’s war

North Korea has shipped about 6,700 containers carrying millions of munitions to Russia since July to support its war against Ukraine, in a sign of ongoing arms transfers, South Korean media has reported, citing the defence minister.

At a briefing on Monday for local media, Minister Shin Won-sik said the containers might carry more than 3 million 152 mm artillery shells, or 500,000 122 mm rounds.

“It could possibly be a mix of the two, and you can say that at least several million shells have been sent,” Shin said, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Hundreds of North Korean munitions factories are running at around 30% of their capacity due to a lack of raw materials and electricity, but those producing artillery shells for Russia were operating “at full swing,” he added, without elaborating on the source of the information.

Seoul and Washington have accused Pyongyang and Moscow of trading arms and condemned the North for supplying weapons to Russia for use against Ukraine. Both countries have denied it even as they pledged to strengthen military cooperation.

The U.S. State Department, in a fact sheet released on Friday, said that North Korea has delivered more than 10,000 containers of munitions or related materials to Russia since September.

In exchange, North Korea has received some 9,000 containers mostly containing food supplies, which Shin said has helped stabilise prices there.

Pyongyang has also asked for assistance with aircraft and ground mobility equipment technology.

“It is unclear how much Russia will give, but the more dependent Russia gets on North Korean artillery shells, the greater the degree of Russian technology transfers will be,” he said, according to Yonhap.

Her husband Siarhei remains in Belarusian custody after his arrest in May 2020 when he announced his intention to run against Mr Lukashenko, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Here are some of the latest pictures from Ukraine after another round of overnight Russian strikes.

“There is no consensus at this stage to send troops on the ground. Nothing should be excluded. We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win,” Mr Macron told reporters on Monday.

Russia launched 13 attack drones and a barrage of missiles at Ukraine overnight, with air defence systems destroying 11 drones as well as two guided missiles over several regions, Ukraine‘s air force said on Monday.

In total, Russia launched 13 attack drones, four of the Kh-59 guided air missile, one air-to-surface Kh-31P missile and ballistic missiles, the Ukraine‘s force said on the Telegram messaging app.

It was not immediately clear how many ballistic missiles Russia reportedly launched or what happened to the missiles and drones that were not downed.

Askold Krushelnycky meets members of a battalion in eastern Ukraine using 3D-printed explosive casings to build ‘bomber’ drones to take out artillery, armoured vehicles and tanks

Half of Western arms deliveries are being delayed and the hold-up is putting lives and territories at risk, Ukraine’s defence minister has warned as soldiers blamed a crippling lack of ammunition on Kyiv’s withdrawal from the key town of Avdiivka.

Speaking from the Ukrainian capital at an event to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Rustem Umerov said in the “mathematics of war” there are deadly consequences when promised military support “does not constitute delivery”.

He said it was also unprecedented in history that a country was expected to fight against an enemy with such a discrepancy in air power and military budget. It comes just a week after Kyiv was forced to pull its forces out of Avdiivka in the east of the country.

Germany’s foreign minister was forced to abandon a diplomatic trip to Ukraine on Sunday after a drone hovered above her.

Annalena Baerbock was visiting a waterworks facility in Mykolayiv to coincide with the two-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.

However, a Russian drone was spotted nearby forcing her to leave the scene and drive west to Moldova, according to German broadcaster ZDF.

At least 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed fighting back against the Russian invasion that began two years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, providing the first official death toll from Kyiv in more than a year.

“31,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed in this war. Not 300,000, not 150,000… (Russian president Vladimir) Putin is lying there… But nevertheless, this is a big loss for us,” he said in a news conference at the Ukraine Year Forum in Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky said Russia’s casualties – both injured and dead – during the invasion stood at 500,000, of which 180,000 were Russian soldiers killed in the war, according to Kyiv’s estimates.