Ukraine-Russia war latest: Senior Russian diplomat meets UK, French and German ambassadors in Moscow – UK Times

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un sent a congratulatory message to Russian president Vladimir Putin on Russia’s National Day, ⁠voicing full support for Moscow’s domestic and foreign policies, state media KCNA said this morning.

Kim said ties between North Korea and Russia were strengthening into an alliance based on a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty, and pledged to always be with Russia, KCNA reported.

Separately, Russian and ⁠North Korean officials visited a monument and cemetery ​of ⁠fallen Soviet Army ‌fighters to mark Russia’s National Day, while Russia’s embassy hosted a reception for North Korean senior ‌officials, KCNA said.

Ties between the two countries have been deepening amid North Korea’s deployment of thousands of troops to support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Fuel stations on the Russian-held Crimean peninsula were out of petrol yesterday, Reuters witnesses said, as a Ukrainian campaign against supply lines to the peninsula escalates.

A Reuters witness in Sevastopol, the peninsula’s largest city, said that there was no fuel at most local petrol stations, with supplies struggling even to keep up with a rationing regime imposed in recent weeks.

Another, in the resort town of Yevpatoriya, said that there was a long queue outside the single working petrol station there. Ukraine has been intensifying drone strikes on supply lines to the peninsula, which Russia ⁠seized from Kyiv in 2014.

Local authorities have imposed fuel rationing ​regimes, ⁠with some foodstuffs also running short.

Fuel shortages in Russia have been reported by the media and on social media in around a dozen regions, according to data compiled by Reuters. Besides Russian-held Crimea, only two regions in Siberia have officially confirmed the shortages.

Most other regions have said that the situation is under control and some disruptions ​were ⁠caused by panic buying. Moscow has denied there were ‌any problems with fuel supplies.

Russia’s city of Togliatti, home to the country’s biggest carmaker Avtovaz, has come under drone attack, Samara region governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on Telegram.

“Attention! Drone ‌attack regime ‌for Togliatti,” he ⁠wrote. Togliatti is a city on the Volga River some ‌800km (500 ‌miles) southeast ⁠of Moscow.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that he envisioned a “just and lasting peace” for Ukraine that “also takes Germany security interests into account.”

It comes as the leader discussed Ukraine’s application for European Union membership.

He explained: “Out goal for Ukraine remains a just and lasting peace that also takes German security interests into account.”

Ukraine is ‌pressing for membership of the 27-member EU after more ⁠than four years of war pitting Kyiv against Moscow.

Merz explained that proposed associated European Union membership for Ukraine would mean the country would be able to participate in the EU council meetings and have an EU commissioner without voting rights.

Ukraine has attacked bridges linking Russia-occupied Crimea with Ukraine’s southern Kherson region, according to Russian officials.

The Russian-installed ⁠governor of occupied Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said the strikes had caused damage, but that more information was awaited.

Earlier, Telegram channels said all bridges linking Crimea with the Ukrainian mainland were rendered unusable by the strikes, part of a major wave of Ukrainian attacks across the peninsula.