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The Russian president said Friday that his country will continue to develop its nuclear arsenal, days after signing a new mutual defense pact with Kim Jong Un.

A key U.S. ally fired warning shots Friday — live ones to repel North Korean soldiers and a diplomatic volley to counter Russian President Vladimir Putin, as tensions rise after his new mutual defense pact with Kim Jong Un.

South Korea, which has so far only provided non-lethal aid to Ukraine, said it was considering arming Kyiv in response to a newly forged alliance between Moscow and Pyongyang reminiscent of the Cold War that has alarmed officials in the West.

Putin said that doing so would be a "very big mistake."

“If this happens, then we will also make appropriate decisions that the current leadership of South Korea would hardly like,” he said during his state visit to Vietnam on Thursday, which immediately followed the lavish Pyongyang visit. “We reserve our right to supply weapons to other regions of the world,” he added.

The Russian president's saber-rattling continued Friday, when he said that Russia will continue to develop its nuclear arsenal as a deterrent.

According to the NATO Secretary General, Chinese support for Russia is a decisive factor for Moscow in the war, but it is not too late for Ukraine to win, Jens Stoltenberg believes.

China is supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine by supplying equipment, microelectronics, and technology. This support is a decisive factor for Moscow in the war, but it is not too late for Ukraine to win, Jens Stoltenberg believes.

He said this in an interview with Welt am Sonntag.

Stoltenberg noted that Beijing has significantly increased the supply of parts, microelectronics and technologies to Moscow, which Russia uses to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft for the war against Ukraine.

The NATO Secretary General’s words about “fueling the war” are in line with a recent statement by a representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry that “the UK, not China, is fomenting fire in Ukraine.” This is how Beijing reacted to British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps’ statement about China’s supply of lethal weapons to Russia.

KHARKIV REGION, Ukraine, May 16 (Reuters) - Peeking out from under a hat and with his face covered, the Russian fighting for Kyiv described unrelenting battles in the northeastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv where Moscow's forces opened a new front last week.

"The situation is difficult, the intensity is very high, there is fighting almost every ten minutes," said the mortarman, who identified himself only by his callsign, Winnie.

The soldier is part of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a group of Russians opposed to President Vladimir Putin who are fighting for Ukraine.

• A US commander appeared to suggest UK special forces were operating in Ukraine.
• Gen. Bryan Fenton told The AP that the US was "taking a lot of lessons" from UK special forces in Ukraine.
• The UK Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the report.

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A US commander has appeared to suggest that UK special forces were operating in Ukraine.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gen. Bryan Fenton, the Commander of US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), spoke about plans to restructure Green Beret teams based on lessons from British special forces in Ukraine.

"A 12-person detachment might be up-gunned," Fenton said, explaining that as warfare becomes more high-tech, there may be a need for teams to have a cyber expert, an Air Force pilot, or a cryptologist, for example.

Russian forces have made two cross-border assaults inside northern Ukraine, according to information from Ukrainian sources and officials, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling a “new wave of counteroffensive actions” by Russia.

In the first development, Russian soldiers penetrated at least one kilometer towards the town of Vovchansk, a Ukrainian military source told CNN. The aim, the source said, “was to get 10 km deep and create a buffer zone at the border to secure Russian territory from feeling the war.”

In an official statement, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Russian soldiers supported by armored vehicles had moved across the border at about 5:00am Friday, following a day of stepped-up attacks on the border area with guided aerial bombs and artillery.

The statement added that Ukrainian reserve units had been deployed to strengthen defenses in the area.

Kyiv Independent’s Olga Rudenko is set on telling the truth in wartime, despite clumsy instances of state harassment

For Olga Rudenko, the editor of the Kyiv Independent, journalism is not just a profession but a moral imperative. “Our soldiers in the frontline are fighting for Ukraine to define its own future,” she says. “They are fighting for Ukraine not to be Russia; Russia is associated with no freedom of speech, no freedom of media, no freedom whatever.

“If they are dying, we should be using those rights.”

This is more than a simple call for Ukrainian reporters to write as they see fit. Rudenko is speaking out against a clumsy campaign of intimidation of journalists that began last autumn, in which staff at the English-language title have been subject, she says, to “undue interest” from the country’s SBU intelligence service.

The Kyiv Independent is the country’s best known English-language title in a free, vigorous and largely online news market. But, Rudenko adds, “since October-November, a lot of newsrooms started feeling pressure at a time when some people began to think there might be elections”. (Elections in Ukraine are suspended under martial law and, despite that autumn speculation, there are no plans to hold them.)

US lawmakers have voted for fresh assistance for Taiwan, allowing the island to upgrade its military hardware. Taiwan's president-elect says it will "safeguard peace," but China says it raises the risk of war.

China on Wednesday decried a fresh package of US military aid for Taiwan, which is intended to boost the island's defenses in the case of a possible Chinese invasion.

The US Senate passed the $8 billion (€7.48 billion) military aid package late Tuesday, as part of larger legislation that includes fresh assistance for Israel and Ukraine. Having already passed the House, the bill will now head to US President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law.

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China does not view Taiwan as a separate country, but rather as a breakaway province. The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, with the communists taking control of the Chinese mainland and the nationalist Kuomintang retreating to Taiwan

German teenagers and young adults find themselves increasingly unsatisfied and likely to vote for the far right, according to a survey. Fears about prosperity are highlighted as a possible cause.

Young people are more likely to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) than previously, a study on Tuesday showed.

Authors of the "Youth in Germany 2024" study said that under-30s were increasingly disgruntled with their social and economic situation, and that fears about future prosperity were driving a shift to the right.

The AfD's signature issue is a hard-line anti-immigration stance, and the data showed that migration was among young people's main concerns.

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The online study, conducted in January and February, found that young people were becoming increasingly dissatisfied, especially with their social and economic situation, compared with previous years.

After the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors said economic and political worries for example due to inflation, high rents, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East or the division of society had taken center stage.

Russell Bentley, 64, reported killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk by Russian state media and confirmed by his battalion

A US citizen known to have fought with pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine between 2014 and 2017 has been killed in Moscow-occupied Donetsk, according to Russian media reports.

Russia-installed authorities in eastern Ukraine had earlier this month reported the American – 64-year-old Russell Bentley – as missing.

“Russell Bentley, known as ‘Texas’, a real American, truly from Texas, was killed in Donetsk,” Margarita Simonyan, head of the pro-Kremlin RT TV channel, said on social media.

Ukraine's military says its forces have destroyed a Tu-22M3 strategic bomber used to attack Ukrainian cities. This comes as Russian missile strikes in the Dnipropetrovsk region are reported to have killed eight people.

Ukraine said on Friday that its air defense had brought down a Russian strategic Tu-22M3 bomber for the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion began more than two years ago.

"For the first time, anti-aircraft missile units of the Air Force in cooperation with the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine destroyed a Tu-22M3 long-range strategic bomber, a carrier of Kh-22 cruise missiles used by Russian terrorists to attack peaceful Ukrainian cities," Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk said in a statement via Telegram messaging app.

The Russian Interfax news agency has cited the Russian Defense Ministry as reporting the crash of a Tu-22M3 bomber on Friday morning after what the ministry said was an apparent technical malfunction.

France says Russia can be represented but president will not be invited because of war in Ukraine

Russia will be invited to send representatives to an international ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-day – but not Vladimir Putin, the French organisers have announced.

The Élysée is reported to have accepted that the country should be represented but said its leader is not welcome because of Moscow’s ongoing war on Ukraine.

“In view of the circumstances, President Putin will not be invited to take part in the commemorations of the Normandy landings,” the Liberation Mission organising committee said.

Japan has become one of Ukraine's most important allies, providing billions in aid. But what does this mean for relations with Russia?

When Europe talks about aid for Ukraine, it looks to itself and the United States. But for months, politicians in Washington have been unable to agree on a new multibillion aid package for Kyiv.

As a result, other countries have increased their share of support. Among them is Japan, which, according to Ukraine's Finance Ministry, has quietly become one of Kyiv's most important financial backers, leading the way in the first months of 2024.

Russian president says he is interested in ‘who ordered’ terror attack as US and France say Islamic State branch was responsible

Vladimir Putin has said that the terrorist attack on the Crocus City concert hall in Moscow was conducted by radical Islamists but reasserted his earlier claims that Ukraine could have been involved in the shooting that left 139 people dead.

“We know that the crime was committed by the hands of radical Islamists,” Putin said during a meeting with government officials late on Monday.

“We are interested in who ordered it,” he said, adding that the shooting fit in to a wider campaign of intimidation by Ukraine.

“This atrocity may be just one part in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 by the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime.”

Russia’s security services appear to link attack to Ukraine despite IS claiming responsibility

Russia’s security services say they have arrested four gunmen responsible for the shooting that killed at least 115 people at a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, in one of the worst terror attacks in the country’s history.

The director of Russia’s federal security service (FSB) informed Vladimir Putin that 11 individuals had been arrested in connection with Friday’s terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow, including four suspects involved in the shooting.

Islamic State, through an affiliated news agency, claimed responsibility for the attack late on Friday in a post on Telegram, in which they claimed the gunmen had managed to escape afterwards. A US official said Washington had intelligence confirming Islamic State’s claim.

Russian officials have described the attack as an act of terrorism.

There are already signs that Moscow will try to pin blame for the attack on Ukraine, despite the claim of responsibility by Islamic State.

It would have been an ordinary Ukrainian story: Officials and their associates accused of embezzling money on procurements and using procedural trickery to avoid criminal charges.

The difference is in the body count. The officials worked for the Defense Ministry and were supposed to procure 100,000 mortar shells by February 2023. None ever materialized. This alleged Hr 1.5 billion ($39.6 million) scheme coincided with a severe ammunition deficiency at the peak of the bloodiest battle of the full-scale war.

Ukrainians who fought in Bakhmut described facing down unending Russian attacks while wrestling with severe shortages of fire support. Some mortarmen at Bakhmut said they got just 10 shells per day, enough for several minutes of shooting. Total casualties are not known to the public but one unit said it was down to half strength in two months.

“20,000 rounds should have been delivered when there was hell around Bakhmut but none ever were. And there was a real shortage of mortar rounds in that area,” watchdog Anti-Corruption Action Center head Vitaliy Shabunin told the Kyiv Independent.

Worse, the intermediary firms and people involved may have ties with Russia, according to an investigation by Hromadske.

Andrzej Duda sparked row after saying he was unsure if Kyiv could regain control of Russian-occupied Crimea

Poland’s president has declared he has always been unwavering in his support for Ukraine after being criticised for saying he was unsure whether Kyiv would be able to regain control of Crimea.

Warsaw has been one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters since Russia invaded the country in 2022 and has said Ukraine must regain control over all of its territory in order to deter Moscow from further aggression.

Andrzej Duda reiterated this position during an interview on the YouTube channel Kanał Zero on Friday. However, when asked if he believed Ukraine would really be able to retake Crimea, he said: “It is hard for me to answer that question. I don’t know if [Ukraine] will regain Crimea, but I believe it will regain Donetsk and Luhansk.”