Ukraine-Russia war live: Putin’s troops advance amid North Korea concern at US giving Kyiv long-range missiles

Russia‘s invasion of Ukraine has given a fresh impetus to the European Union’s drive to admit more countries, the bloc’s chairman said on Monday, adding he hoped the 27-nation club and prospective new members would be ready by 2030.

European Council President Charles Michel spoke ahead of the 20th anniversary on Wednesday of the EU’s “Big Bang” enlargement that added 10 mostly ex-communist nations such as Poland and Hungary but also the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Cyprus to a bloc that had then comprised just 15 members.

“It was a call of history to unite European countries,” Michel told reporters of the 2004 enlargement.

“Twenty years later we face a similar challenge because there is this geo-political chaos, including because of this war by Russia against Ukraine. And facing this chaos is the geo-political strategy to reunify once again.”

He added: “Because of the war launched by Russia against Ukraine, there is a new impetus, a reinvigoration of the (EU) enlargement strategy.

“It is challenging. But what is the alternative? The alternative would be a terrible, irresponsible mistake from the EU,” he said, calling for the EU and candidate countries to carry out by 2030 the reforms necessary for a new enlargement.

Konstantin Gabov and Sergey Karelin have been accused of producing content for Navalny’s YouTube channel, NavalnyLIVE, run by the Foundation for Fighting Corruption. The organisation, which is dedicated to investigating corrupt practices by Vladimir Putin, his associates and the ruling elite, has been declared an “extremist” body by the Kremlin.

“The enemy again massively shelled Ukrainian energy facilities,” said DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private electricity company, adding that four of its six thermal power plants had suffered damage overnight.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that vital US weapons were starting to arrive in Ukraine in small amounts and that the process needed to move faster as advancing Russian forces were trying to take advantage.

Zelensky told a joint news conference in Kyiv alongside visiting NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg that the situation on the battlefield directly depended on the speed of ammunition supplies to Ukraine.

“Timely support for our army. Today I don’t see anything positive on this point yet. There are supplies, they have slightly begun, this process needs to be sped up,” he said.

Russian forces advanced at points along the front line in Ukraine on Monday, taking a village in the Donetsk region, gaining better positions in the Kharkiv region and repelling a number of Ukrainian attacks, Russia‘s defence ministry said.

Russia controls about 18% of Ukraine – in the east and south – and has been gaining ground since the failure of Kyiv’s 2023 counter-offensive to make any serious inroads against well dug-in Russian troops.

President Vladimir Putin in February ordered Russian troops to push further into Ukraine after the fall of the town of Avdiivka where he said Ukrainian troops had been forced to flee in chaos. Ukraine said it withdrew from Avdiivka.

Russia‘s defence ministry said its troops had taken the village of Semenivka, northwest of Avdiivka. Russia said it had defeated Ukrainian forces and foreign mercenaries in a number of other villages in the area.

Russia also reported defeating Ukrainian troops in the areas of Synkivka in the Kharkiv region and at a number of other points along the front line. It also said it had struck Ukrainian drone workshops.

North Korea criticised the United States for supplying long-range missiles to Ukraine, state media KCNA reported on Monday, citing a statement from the defence ministry.

On Sunday, the director of the Department of Foreign Military Affairs of North Korea’s Ministry of National Defence was quoted as saying in a statement: “The US has secretly supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine, sparking off uneasiness and concern of the international community.”

“The US can never defeat the heroic Russian army and people with any latest weaponry or military support,” the director said.

Military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow are growing which the U.S. and its allies see as escalating tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

Russian forces have taken the village of Semenivka in Ukraine‘s Donetsk region, Russia‘s defence ministry said on Monday.

On Sunday, the ministry announced the capture of Novobakhmutivka, another village close to Ocheretyne, which has become a focal point of fighting in recent days.

Ukraine said on Monday the Telegram messaging app had restored access to a number of chatbots used by Ukraine‘s security agencies to collect information about Russia‘s war effort after the services were briefly suspended.

The Dubai-based Telegram app founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov blocked a number of bots used by Ukraine to fight back against Russia‘s full-scale invasion, Kyiv’s military spy agency GUR said in a statement shortly after midnight.

A Telegram bot is an automated feature that allows the app’s users to submit or ask for information. Some of the bots run by Ukraine‘s government allow people to report the whereabouts of Russian military hardware and personnel inside Ukraine.

The GUR had said that “management of the Telegram platform unreasonably blocked a number of official bots that have opposed Russia‘s military aggression against Ukraine, including the (GUR) bot”.

By morning, Ukraine‘s Centre for Strategic Communication said that three affected bots, used by Ukraine‘s SBU security service, GUR and digital ministry for the war effort had been unblocked.

A Telegram spokesperson said bots were “temporarily disabled due to a false positive but have since been reinstated”, without giving further details.

Ukraine’s farm minister welcomed the ending of a months-long border blockade by Polish protesters, which he said followed productive talks with Poland.

“The negotiations that took place were not easy, but the main thing is that we have a result,” Mykola Solsky was quoted as saying in a statement from the ministry.