White House says North Korea supplying Moscow with arms for Ukraine war

Russia claimed that its troops were “improving their positions” along much of the front line in eastern Ukraine and that Kyiv’s counteroffensive had “failed completely”, as the industrial town of Avdiivka in Donetsk region held out against a fifth day of heavy attacks.

Russian president Vladimir Putin praised his invasion force as Moscow denied that it was breaking United Nations sanctions in its dealings with North Korea, amid US allegations that Pyongyang was supplying the Kremlin with weapons for use in Ukraine.

“What is happening now along the entire contact line is called ‘active defence’. And our troops are improving their positions in almost this whole area,” said Mr Putin on Sunday.

“As for the counteroffensive, which has allegedly stalled — it has failed completely. We know that in certain areas of hostilities, however, the opposing side is planning new active offensive operations. We see this, we know it, and we also react accordingly,” he added.

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Vitaliy Barabash, head of the administration in Avdiivka, said on Sunday that the town on the outskirts of the occupied city of Donetsk was still subject to heavy Russian fire and attacks by infantry units.

“Overnight, the Russian military massively shelled the community, destroyed the hospital’s electricity substation and hit its room for sterilising medical equipment. The facade [of the hospital] was hit but all the medics were unhurt, they were in the basement,” he told Ukrainian television.

“Since yesterday, the intensity [of attacks] has been dropping. Not much, not very significantly, but we can feel that they are now running out of steam,” Mr Barabash added.

Ukraine has retaken a handful of villages near the occupied city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region and in Zaporizhzhia to the south, during a four-month counteroffensive that has struggled to overcome Russian minefields and fortified positions.

In recent weeks, Russia has launched its own attacks near the town of Lyman, 55km north of Bakhmut, and near Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, a further 100km to the north.

“The situation in the Kupiansk and Lyman areas worsened significantly in recent days. The enemy, after suffering losses, recovered over two months and began active offensive operations ... heavy fighting continues,” said Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander of Ukraine’s ground forces.

“However, our fighters were ready for this turn of events and gave a suitable rebuff to the enemy. It is suffering significant losses and has not achieved meaningful success.”

Washington has presented satellite images that allegedly show cargo from an arms depot in North Korea (DPRK) being moved by ship and train towards Russia’s border with Ukraine.

“We condemn the DPRK for providing Russia with this military equipment, which will be used to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilians, and further Russia’s illegitimate war,” said White House spokesman John Kirby, alleging that more than 1,000 containers of equipment had been transferred.

Senior Russian diplomat Oleg Burmistrov insisted on Sunday that “our opponents have found no evidence” for any breaches of UN sanctions on Pyongyang.

“Russia, as a responsible member of the world community, strictly adheres to its international obligations towards Pyongyang through the UN Security Council,” he said.