North Korea is providing its “unconditional support” to Russia in the war against Ukraine. This was declared during a meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Wonsan on Saturday, according to North Korean state media.
Kim Jong-Un informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the country stands ready to provide strong assistance in the conflict against Ukraine during a meeting that took place on Saturday in the coastal town of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast, a location that the country has recently attempted to market as a tourist destination.
According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, Kim Jong-Un told Lavrov that North Koreans have “expressed full sympathy and support for all the measures taken by the Russian government to remove the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict”.
The North Korean leader is also said to have expressed his “firm conviction that the Russian army and people” will triumph and “achieve the sacred cause of defending the country’s dignity and fundamental interests”, KCNA reports.
Before the meeting with Kim Jong-Un, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Choe Son-Hui, earlier in the day.
Deepened military cooperation
Lavrov’s visit to North Korea marks increasingly extensive military and political ties between the two countries, which have accelerated in connection with the war in Ukraine.
Pyongyang has previously sent thousands of soldiers to the Russian border region of Kursk to participate in fighting against Ukrainian forces that occupied parts of the area.
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The US will send more weapons than ever to Ukraine. These are the tones being heard around the Trump administration as NATO chief Mark Rutte now visits Washington.
A large part of Trump’s voter base is generally considered to be voters who voted for him in hopes that he would reduce US involvement in foreign wars, partly because he promised during the campaign that he would end the war in 24 hours. However, these promises seem to be becoming increasingly distant for the American president.
On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington, and Rutte can be pleased that more weapons than ever are now heading to the war in Ukraine. This according to information from, among others, the neoconservative war hawk Lindsey Graham, Republican senator and close ally of the Trump administration.
– In the coming days, you’ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves, says Graham on CBS’s program “Face the Nation”.
European countries foot the bill
A central part of the escalation is that NATO countries, including Sweden, have pledged to increase their weapons purchases, which in practice are largely procured from the American military-industrial complex.
Graham believes that the US escalation of weapons deliveries to the war in Ukraine is part of a “massive effort” to force Russian President Vladimir Putin into peace negotiations. It should be added that Russia has in many different contexts over a long time emphasized that they have been open to negotiations as well as being open about their peace conditions, which primarily revolve around guarantees of Ukraine’s neutrality.
Trump has signaled that he will make a “major statement” about Russia during the day.
The number of civilian casualties continues to rise on both sides in the Ukraine war. The image shows victims of a Russian shelling attack against the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine in June this year.
The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine reached its highest level since 2022 during June 2025, according to a new report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country. At least 232 civilians were killed and 1,343 injured during the month – figures that testify to a dramatic escalation in how the war affects the civilian population.
The UN report shows that Russia conducted 10 times more missile attacks during June 2025 compared to the same month the previous year. The attacks hit 16 regions in Ukraine, including the capital Kiev, and caused deaths and injuries far from the front lines.
“Civilians across Ukraine are facing levels of suffering we have not seen in over three years”, says Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
According to the report, almost half of all civilian casualties were caused by missiles and aerial bombs in densely populated areas. Meanwhile, short-range drone attacks continued to kill and injure civilians near the front lines.
Targets of the Russian attacks
Based on reports from the conflict, Russian attacks primarily target energy infrastructure such as power plants, gas storage facilities, and power lines. Russia has systematically attacked Ukraine’s energy supply in an attempt to paralyze the country, with over 2,400 attacks on energy facilities since February 2022.
Military recruitment centers and other strategic targets have also been subject to Russian attacks. The Russian Defense Ministry often justifies attacks on energy and fuel facilities by claiming they are used by the Ukrainian military.
Despite these facilities potentially having military significance, the civilian population is severely affected when they are attacked. Civilian casualties occur both from direct hits and from debris from downed missiles when Ukrainian air defenses respond.
Several of the civilian deaths have occurred in nighttime attacks on the capital Kiev, where attacks were previously uncommon. During massive attacks during the night against Thursday in the Kiev region that lasted almost ten hours, Russian forces used 397 Shahed drones and 18 missiles against Ukrainian targets. At least two people were killed and 22 injured in that attack on Kyiv.
Woman who became a victim of heavy Russian bombing in northeastern Ukraine on June 7 this year. Photo: State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SESU)
Sharp increase during 2025
The total number of civilian deaths and injuries during the first half of 2025 is 6,754 people, which is 54 percent more compared to the same period in 2024. During the first six months of 2025, the number of civilian deaths increased by 17 percent and injuries by 64 percent.
Since the war broke out on February 24, 2022, the UN monitoring mission has registered at least 13,580 civilian deaths, including 716 children. Additionally, 34,115 injured civilians were reported, including 2,173 children.
The UN monitoring mission warns that the actual figures for civilian casualties may be significantly higher than what is reported, given the challenges and time required for adequate verification of all deaths and injuries.
“No place in Ukraine is completely safe”
Danielle Bell from the UN monitoring mission has previously warned: “Almost half of the civilian casualties over the past three months have died far away from the front lines. We can conclude that no place in Ukraine is completely safe”.
No peace is yet in sight in the over three-year-long armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine that continues with Western involvement.
Non-Russian citizens will now be allowed to enlist in the military, according to a law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The state-run Russian news agency Tass reports that the new law enables stateless persons and foreigners to sign contracts and serve in the Russian military until the end of the mobilization period, the lifting of the state of emergency, or the end of martial law in Russia.
The law is said to have been expedited “in order to take urgent additional measures to restaff the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” according to the explanation in the legal document.
Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar believes that the war in Ukraine cannot be decided on the battlefield. Instead, he urges the Western world to seek a peaceful solution through direct dialogue with Russia – and warns that continued tensions could lead to a catastrophic large-scale war between NATO and Moscow.
– We do not want a war between Russia and NATO to break out, because that would be the Third World War. We want the conflict to be settled peacefully, Blanar said during a discussion program on Slovak public broadcaster STVR last Sunday.
Blanar emphasized the importance of diplomacy and called for a return to “respect for international law”. He also suggested that the Western world should seek ways to renew contact with Moscow – “and perhaps even forgive everything that has happened”.
Slovakia, like Hungary, has consistently pushed for de-escalation of the conflict and opposed additional EU sanctions against Russia.
The country’s president Peter Pellegrini has also urged EU member states to resume direct talks with Moscow and has simultaneously rejected demands for rapid military buildup within NATO, arguing that defense spending should reflect each country’s own priorities – rather than concerns about Russia.
Russia demands Ukrainian neutrality
Russian officials have condemned the US-led bloc’s decision last week that member countries should raise their defense budgets to 5 percent of GDP – a measure that NATO says will deter the “long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security”.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that it has no intentions of attacking any NATO country and has called the accusations “nonsense” – a scare tactic that, according to Moscow, is used by the West to legitimize increased defense spending.
Moscow states that it seeks a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine war, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that a lasting agreement must include recognition of the actual situation “on the ground”, as well as Ukrainian neutrality.
According to Putin, contacts between Moscow and Kyiv are being maintained regarding a possible third round of peace negotiations. Previous talks have been held in Turkey, where the parties have exchanged draft peace proposals and carried out several prisoner exchanges.
