US president Donald Trump said he has talked to Russian president Vladimir Putin on the phone to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.
In an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday, Mr Trump said that he had "better not say," when asked how many times the two leaders have spoken.
"He (Putin) wants to see people stop dying," Trump told the New York Post.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday he could "neither confirm nor deny" reports of a conversation between the two leaders.
Next week, Mr Trump is likely to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine's war to repel Russian invaders.
It comes as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un made his first admission of its the country’s support of Putin’s invasion.
North Korean army will “invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia, Kim said in latest comments.
Key Points
- North Korea says its army supports Russia’s war in Ukraine for ‘just cause’
- Trump says he will 'probably' meet Zelensky
- Zelensky says hundreds of North Korean and Russia troops return to Kursk frontline
- Putin admits situation in Kursk 'very difficult'
- Ukraine advances 5km in new incursion into Russia's Kursk
What is Russia’s strategic partnership with North Korea?
03:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" pact in Pyongyang on 19 June, 2024, including a mutual defence clause in case of aggression against either country.
Kim expressed "unconditional support" for "all of Russia's policies", including "a full support and firm alliance" for Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin has said Russia would help North Korea build satellites.
The US and South Korea say North Korea has shipped ballistic missiles, anti-tank rockets and millions of rounds of ammunition for Russia to use in the war. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied weapons transfers.
Ukraine, South Korea and the US say Kim has sent more than 11,000 troops to fight for Russia in its western Kursk region, part of which has been held by Ukraine since August. Ukraine says many North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded. Moscow has never confirmed or denied their presence.
Ukrainian forces advance further inside Kursk using highway
02:59
,
Arpan Rai
Ukrainian forces have advanced further inside Kursk, where they launched another attack on Friday, according to a US-based think tank.
“Geolocated footage published on 9 February (yesterday) indicates that Ukrainian forces recently advanced along the 38K-028 Sudzha-Oboyan highway southwest of Russkaya Konopelka,” the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest assessment yesterday.
It said Kyiv’s battlefield gains were confirmed by Russian sources who claimed that Ukrainian forces conducted mechanized attacks southeast of Sudzha near Russkaya Konopelka and Fanaseyevka in Kursk.
Russia launches drone attack on Kyiv, mayor says
02:48
,
Arpan Rai
Russia launched an overnight drone attack on Kyiv, sparking a fire at a non-residential building in one of the city's districts, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said early today.
"All emergency services are on site," mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on his Telegram channel. "So far, there are no injuries reported."
Why Trump wants Ukraine’s rare earths
02:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
What is ATACMS? The US missiles being used inside Russia
01:24
,
Jabed Ahmed
There are several variants of Army Tactical Missile Systems, a long-range missile system that often carries varying amounts of cluster bomblets.
Ukrainian forces used the US-supplied long-range ATACMS missiles for the first time in October 2023, with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy saying the weapons had "proven themselves."
Ukraine likely has what are known as M39A1 Block IA ATACMS that are guided in part by Global Positioning System and have a range of 40 to 190 miles. They can carry a payload of 300 bomblets. The M39 Block IA were used in Operation Iraqi Freedom, according to Army documents, and were added to the US arsenal in 1997.
Used as human shields, starved and under fire: The horrors people with disabilities face in Putin’s war
Sunday 9 February 2025 23:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Mapped: Russia's invasion of Ukraine
Sunday 9 February 2025 21:01
,
Tom Watling
Sunday 9 February 2025 20:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Mapped: Ukraine’s counterattack into the Russian Kursk region explained
Sunday 9 February 2025 19:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Robotic vehicles to be rolled out to bolster Ukrainian front line
Sunday 9 February 2025 18:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Watch | Rapper leads Ukraine's drone war against Russia
Sunday 9 February 2025 17:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Putin’s forces are desperate for a prize eastern city and Ukraine will fight street to street to keep them out
Sunday 9 February 2025 16:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Baltic states switch to European power grid, ending Russia ties
Sunday 9 February 2025 15:29
,
Jabed Ahmed
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said on Sunday they had successfully synchronised their electricity systems to the European continental power grid, one day after severing decades-old energy ties to Russia and Belarus.
Planned for many years, the complex switch away from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord is designed to integrate the three Baltic nations more closely with the European Union and to boost the region's energy security.
"We did it!," Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said in a post on social media X.
After disconnecting on Saturday from the IPS/UPS network, established by the Soviet Union in the 1950s and now run by Russia, the Baltic nations cut cross-border high-voltage transmission lines in eastern Latvia, some 100 metres from the Russian border, handing out pieces of chopped wire to enthusiastic bystanders as keepsakes.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, herself an Estonian, earlier this week called the switch "a victory for freedom and European unity".
The Baltic Sea region is on high alert after power cable, telecom links and gas pipeline outages between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland. All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.
Poland and the Baltics deployed navy assets, elite police units and helicopters after an undersea power link from Finland to Estonia was damaged in December, while Lithuania's military began drills to protect the overland connection to Poland.
Analysts say more damage to links could push power prices in the Baltics to levels not seen since the invasion of Ukraine, when energy prices soared.
Pictured | Zelensky meets the Chair of the Nato Military Committee
Sunday 9 February 2025 15:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russia repelled three Ukrainian counterattacks in Kursk region, defence ministry says
Sunday 9 February 2025 14:31
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russian troops repelled three Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kursk region overnight, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday, quoted by state news agency TASS.
The Russian Defence Ministry has said that Ukrainian troops attempted a counterattack in the west of Kursk Region near the villages of Ulanok and Cherkasskaya Konopelka on Thursday but were repelled by Russian troops.
Special Dispatch | As the Russians bombard the key Ukraine stronghold of Zaporizhzhia – this school offers hope underground
Sunday 9 February 2025 14:02
,
Jabed Ahmed
Askold Krushelnycky witnesses Russian ballistic missile strikes on the southeastern city and speaks to residents who remain unbowed and determined never to surrender to Putin
Trump and Putin's history
Sunday 9 February 2025 13:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces fighting Ukraine's armed forces.
Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022, calling it a "special military operation" to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine and counter what he said was a grave threat to Russia from potential Ukrainian membership of Nato.
Ukraine and its Western backers, led by the United States, said the invasion was an imperial-style land grab and vowed to defeat Russian forces.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war and that he will meet Putin to discuss it, though the date or venue for a summit is still not publicly known.
Putin is open to discussing a Ukraine peace deal with Trump but rules out making any major territorial concessions and insists Kyiv abandon ambitions to join Nato.
Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, in his 2024 book "War", reported that Trump had direct conversations as many as seven times with Putin after he left the White House in 2021.
Asked if that were true in an interview with Bloomberg last year, Trump said: "If I did, it's a smart thing." The Kremlin denied Woodward's report.
Trump told the New York Post that he has "always had a good relationship with Putin" and that he has a concrete plan to end the war. But he did not disclose further details.
Russia awaits appropriate signals from US on contacts, senior diplomat says
Sunday 9 February 2025 12:46
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russian envoy to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzya, said on Sunday that Russia was waiting for "appropriate signals" from Washington on contacts with Moscow, the state-run news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Russia is ready for talks with the United States on Ukraine "on an equal basis’" provided its interests are taken into account, Nebenzya, who serves as Russia's permanent representative to the UN, said.
Russian forces capture settlement of Orikhovo-Vasylivka in eastern Ukraine, TASS reports
Sunday 9 February 2025 12:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russian troops took control of the settlement of Orikhovo-Vasylivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the TASS state-run news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Defence Ministry.
The Independent could not confirm the battlefield report.
Russia says it sees no positive steps from US on disarmament
Sunday 9 February 2025 11:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russia is yet to see any positive steps from the new US administration on disarmament, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva has said.
"We are ready to maintain smooth relations of cooperation with any American administration," Gennady Gatilov said, according to RIA Novosti.
"We would be ready to do this within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament," he was quoted as saying. "So far, we do not see any positive progress in this regard in Geneva."
The conference, an international disarmament forum that meets in the Swiss city, has negotiated a number of major multilateral arms limitation and disarmament agreements, including on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
After last month's inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that he sees Trump's second term as a chance for a new era in US-Russian relations.
"We are, of course, closely monitoring the rhetoric and first steps of the representatives of the new U.S. administration," Gatilov said. "We expect that the Americans will move from words to action, especially since they have said a lot since January 20."
Ukraine's military says it shot down 70 out of 151 drones launched by Russia overnight
Sunday 9 February 2025 10:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine's military has said that Russia launched 151 drones to attack Ukraine overnight.
Ukraine's air force shot down 70 drones, while 74 more did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare, and two are still in air, it said in a statement.
Trump says he has spoken to Putin about ending war in Ukraine - reports
Sunday 9 February 2025 09:10
,
Jabed Ahmed
US President Donald Trump said that he has talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine, the New York Post reported late on Saturday.
In an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday Trump said that he had "better not say," when asked how many times the two leaders have spoken.
"He (Putin) wants to see people stop dying," Trump told the New York Post.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday he could "neither confirm nor deny" reports of a conversation between Putin and Trump.
'External impact' damages Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable - report
Sunday 9 February 2025 08:30
,
Shweta Sharma
An underwater Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable was damaged by an "external impact", Russia's TASS news agency cited the country's state-owned Rostelecom company as saying on Saturday.
"Rostelecom's submarine cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea as a result of an external impact some time ago," TASS cited Rostelecom as saying.
Restoration work is underway and the incident has had no impact on subscribers so far, Rostelecom added.
Rostelecom did not provide further details and it was unclear when the damage occurred. Finland's coast guard said earlier on Saturday on platform X that it was monitoring a Russian vessel repairing a broken Russian cable in the Gulf of Finland.
The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert after a string of outages affecting power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland, leading to increased surveillance operations by Nato members.
All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.
What happened to the North Korean troops fighting Ukraine on the frontline?
Sunday 9 February 2025 08:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
Watch | Rapper leads Ukraine's drone war against Russia
Sunday 9 February 2025 07:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
Kitten named Peach saves life of Ukrainian man fleeing war
Sunday 9 February 2025 06:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russia says it destroys 35 Ukrainian drones overnight
Sunday 9 February 2025 05:57
,
Shweta Sharma
Russian air defence units intercepted and destroyed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.
About half of the drones were destroyed over the Kursk region that borders Ukraine, while the rest were intercepted over various other regions in Russia's west and south, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
What is Russia’s strategic partnership with North Korea?
Sunday 9 February 2025 05:31
,
Shweta Sharma
Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" pact in Pyongyang on 19 June 2024, including a mutual defence clause in case of aggression against either country.
Kim expressed "unconditional support" for "all of Russia's policies", including "a full support and firm alliance" for Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin has said Russia would help North Korea build satellites.
The US and South Korea say North Korea has shipped ballistic missiles, anti-tank rockets and millions of rounds of ammunition for Russia to use in the war. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied weapons transfers.
Ukraine, South Korea and the US say Kim has sent more than 11,000 troops to fight for Russia in its western Kursk region, part of which has been held by Ukraine since August. Ukraine says many North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded. Moscow has never confirmed or denied their presence.
Special Dispatch | Ukraine’s leading rapper is now leading drone warfare against Russia
Sunday 9 February 2025 05:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine’s $1.3 billion drone war is now being led by a rap artist who has been fighting on the front line – and in his music - since the start of the war, Sam Kiley reports
'External impact' damages Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable - report
Sunday 9 February 2025 04:33
,
Shweta Sharma
An underwater Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable was damaged by an "external impact", Russia's TASS news agency cited the country's state-owned Rostelecom company as saying on Saturday.
"Rostelecom's submarine cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea as a result of an external impact some time ago," TASS cited Rostelecom as saying.
Restoration work is under way and the incident has had no impact on subscribers so far, Rostelecom added.
Rostelecom did not provide further details and it was unclear when the damage occurred. Finland's coast guard said earlier on Saturday on platform X that it was monitoring a Russian vessel repairing a broken Russian cable in the Gulf of Finland.
The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert after a string of outages affecting power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland, leading to increased surveillance operations by Nato members.
All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.
Ukrainian music band Ziferblat to perform in 2025 Eurovision
Sunday 9 February 2025 04:20
,
Shweta Sharma
Ukrainian music band Ziferblat has secured their place in 2025 Eurovision after winning the selection contest with the song “Birds of Prey”.
The band will represent the war-torn nation with their song "Bird of Pray" at the 13-17 May competition in Basel, Switzerland.
Russia, however, remains banned from the world’s largest song contest organised by the European Broadcasting Union.
Baltic nations cut ties to Russian power grid as they prepare to link with EU
Sunday 9 February 2025 04:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
The three Baltic states disconnected their electricity systems from Russia's power grid on Saturday, the region's operators said, part of a plan designed to integrate the countries more closely with the European Union and boost security.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania disconnected from the IPS/UPS joint network and, subject to last-minute tests, they will synchronise with the EU's grid at 1200 GMT on Sunday after operating on their own in the meantime.
"We've reached the goal we for strived for, for so long. We are now in control," Lithuanian Energy Minister Zygimantas Vaiciunas told a press conference.
Plans for the Baltics to decouple from the grid of their former Soviet imperial overlord, debated for decades, gained momentum following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
The grid was the final remaining link to Russia for the three countries, which reemerged as independent nations in the early 1990s at the fall of the Soviet Union, and joined the European Union and Nato in 2004.
Russia sees no progress on disarmament from new US administration, envoy says
Sunday 9 February 2025 03:31
,
Shweta Sharma
Russia has yet to see any positive steps from the new US administration on disarmament, Russia's permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva said in an interview published on Sunday.
"We are ready to maintain smooth relations of cooperation with any American administration," Gennady Gatilov said, according to RIA Novosti. "We would be ready to do this within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament," he was quoted as saying. "So far, we do not see any positive progress in this regard in Geneva."
The conference, an international disarmament forum that meets in the Swiss city, has negotiated a number of major multilateral arms limitation and disarmament agreements, including on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Russian president Vladimir Putin indicated after last month's inauguration of Donald Trump as US president that he sees Mr Trump's second term as a chance for a new era in US-Russian relations.
"We are, of course, closely monitoring the rhetoric and first steps of the representatives of the new US administration," Mr Gatilov said. "We expect that the Americans will move from words to action, especially since they have said a lot since January 20."
The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads that the United States and Russia can deploy, and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them, is due to expire on February 5, 2026.
It is the last remaining pillar of nuclear arms control between the world's two biggest nuclear powers.
North Korea says its army supports Russia’s war in Ukraine for ‘just cause’
Sunday 9 February 2025 03:02
,
Shweta Sharma
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has said that the army and the people of the country support “just cause” of the Russian army in war against Ukraine.
"The army and people of the DPRK will invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership between the DPRK and Russia,” he said according to KCNA.
His comments came in response to trilateral military cooperation among the US, Japan and South Korea.
Mr Kim vowed to build the country’s “unshakable policy of more highly developing the nuclear forces”.
Mr Kim acknowledged his army’s support to war a day after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed North Korean troops have returned to the Kursk region frontline.
ICYMI | Zelensky says hundreds of North Korean and Russia troops return to Kursk frontline
Sunday 9 February 2025 03:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
North Korean soldiers have been “brought in again” to fight at the frontline in Kursk region after reports that foreign soldiers were withdrawn after suffering losses.
“There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas ... the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again,” Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Friday.
He said a “significant number” of opponent troops “have been eliminated”, adding that “we’re talking hundreds of Russian and North Korean servicemen”.
It come as Ukraine and South Korean intelligence said North Korean troops appear to have withdrawn from fighting after mounting losses.
Putin’s forces are desperate for a prize eastern city and Ukraine will fight street to street to keep them out
Sunday 9 February 2025 01:00
,
Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine says it hopes ICC work will continue after Trump sanctions
Saturday 8 February 2025 23:59
,
Jabed Ahmed
Ukraine believes that the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to Russian war crimes will continue despite US president Donald Trump imposing sanctions on the organisation, Kyiv's foreign ministry said on Friday.
Mr Trump authorised economic and travel sanctions targeting people involved in ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, such as Israel.
The ICC is a permanent court that prosecutes individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals.
"We are convinced that the ICC will continue to fulfil important functions in Ukraine’s case, in particular bringing Russian war criminals to responsibility," foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said at a press briefing in Ukraine's capital.
"We know that relations between the US and the ICC have a long history," Mr Tykhyi added.
Robotic vehicles to be rolled out to bolster Ukrainian front line
Saturday 8 February 2025 23:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Exclusive: Ex-Tory MP joins Ukraine’s foreign legion to aid fight against Putin
Saturday 8 February 2025 22:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Mapped: Ukraine’s counterattack into the Russian Kursk region explained
Saturday 8 February 2025 20:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
A Russian spy ship caught fire off Syria’s coast, officials say
Saturday 8 February 2025 19:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Explained | Why does Russia want to capture the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk?
Saturday 8 February 2025 18:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russian forces are closing in on the strategically important eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after capturing a string of villages to its south, and Ukraine has halted production at its only coking coal mine nearby due to the advance.
Pokrovsk is a road and rail hub in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, which had a pre-war population of some 60,000 people. While most people have fled, Ukraine estimated last month that up to 11,000 still remain in the city.
It lies on a key road used by the Ukrainian military to supply other embattled eastern outposts including the towns of Chasiv Yar and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region.
Ukraine's only mine that produces coking coal - used in its once vast steel industry and vital for the country's pre-war economy - is just a 20-minute drive to the west of Pokrovsk, and open source data shows Russian forces are less than 2 km (1.24 miles) from one of the mine shafts.
Moscow says it has annexed Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region and sees taking control of Pokrovsk as an important stepping stone to incorporating the entire region into Russia. Kyiv and the West reject Russia's territorial claims as illegal and accuse Moscow of prosecuting a war of colonial conquest.
Control of the city, which the Russian media call "the gateway to Donetsk", would allow Moscow to severely disrupt Ukrainian supply lines along the eastern front and boost its campaign to capture Chasiv Yar, which sits on higher ground offering potential control of a wider area.
Squeezing the Ukrainian military's access to the road network in the vicinity would make it harder for Kyiv's troops to hold pockets of territory either side of Pokrovsk, which could allow Russia to advance the front line.
Emboldened by Trump, Iranian dissidents demand overthrow of rulers
Saturday 8 February 2025 17:32
,
Jabed Ahmed
Thousands of opponents to Iran's authorities rallied in Paris on Saturday, joined by Ukrainians to call for the fall of the government in Tehran, hopeful that U.S. President Donald Trump's 'maximum pressure' campaign could lead to change in the country.
The protest, organised by the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), which is banned in Iran, comes as two of the group's members face imminent execution with a further six sentenced to death in November.
"We say your demise has arrived. With or without negotiations, with or without nuclear weapons, uprising and overthrow await you," NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi said in a speech.
People from across Europe, often bussed in for the event, waved Iranian flags and chanted anti-government slogans amid images deriding Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Hundreds of Ukrainians accusing Iran of backing Russian President Vladimir Putin in the war against Ukraine joined the protest.
Iryna Serdiuk, 37, a nurse turned interpreter originally from the embattled Donbass region, and now exiled in Germany, said she had come to Paris to join forces against a common enemy.
"I'm happy to see these Iranians because they are opposition. They support Ukraine and not the Iranian government which gives Russia weapons. We are together and one day it will be victory for Ukraine and Iran too," she said.
Challenges for the Russian economy in 2025
Saturday 8 February 2025 17:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
The Russian economy has shown resilience during the three years of war in Ukraine and Western sanctions. However, as the war approaches its fourth year, the economy faces major challenges with key economic policymakers at odds on how to address them.
Below are the key challenges for the Russian economy in 2025:
Inflation
- Russian annual inflation reached 9.5% in 2024, driven by high military and national security spending, which is set to account for 41% of total state budget spending in 2025, state subsidies on loans, and spiralling wage growth amid labour shortages.
- Inflation tops the list of economic woes in public opinion polls, with prices for staple foods such as butter, eggs, and vegetables showing double-digit growth last year.
Economic slowdown
- The government projects that economic growth rates will slow to 2.5% in 2025 from around 4% in 2024 as a result of measures to cool down the overheated economy, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects growth at 1.4% this year.
- The pro-government economic think tank TsMAKP estimated that many industrial sectors outside defence have been stagnating since 2023, raising prospects of stagflation, a combination of high inflation and economic stagnation.
Budget deficit
- Russia's budget deficit reached 1.7% of GDP in 2024, while the country's National Wealth Fund, the main source of financing the deficit, has been depleted by two-thirds during three years of war.
- The government raised taxes to bring the deficit down to 0.5% of GDP in 2025, but its revenues could also fall due to the latest U.S. energy sanctions, which targeted Russia's oil and gas sector.
What is Russia’s strategic partnership with North Korea?
Saturday 8 February 2025 16:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a "comprehensive strategic partnership" pact in Pyongyang on 19 June, 2024, including a mutual defence clause in case of aggression against either country.
Kim expressed "unconditional support" for "all of Russia's policies", including "a full support and firm alliance" for Russia's war in Ukraine. Putin has said Russia would help North Korea build satellites.
The US and South Korea say North Korea has shipped ballistic missiles, anti-tank rockets and millions of rounds of ammunition for Russia to use in the war. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied weapons transfers.
Ukraine, South Korea and the US say Kim has sent more than 11,000 troops to fight for Russia in its western Kursk region, part of which has been held by Ukraine since August. Ukraine says many North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded. Moscow has never confirmed or denied their presence.
What happened to the North Korean troops fighting Ukraine on the frontline?
Saturday 8 February 2025 14:59
,
Jabed Ahmed
-Russia says it has captured strategic city of Toretsk but Ukraine denies it
Saturday 8 February 2025 14:01
,
Jabed Ahmed
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that its forces had taken control of the strategi
