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Here is the situation on Tuesday, November 5:

Fighting

• Ukraine’s air defence units were attempting to repel a Russian air attack on Kyiv in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said.
• Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its armed forces downed four United States-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 42 Ukrainian drones in the last 24 hours.
• At least 15 people are now confirmed injured after Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv and the surrounding region with guided aerial bombs on Sunday.
• Ukraine’s military said it shot down 50 of 80 Russian drones deployed during an overnight attack.

View of the damage after a Russian guided bomb hit a supermarket in Kharkiv’s Shevchenkivskyi district on November 3 [State Emergency Service Of Ukraine/Handout via Reuters]

North Korean soldiers in Ukraine

• Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said he discussed with his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, the “need for decisive action” in response to North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war on Ukraine. “[North Korean] troops are now carrying an aggressive war in Europe against a sovereign European state,” Sybiha said.
• During his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned there “are already 11,000 [North Korean soldiers] in Kursk”, the Russian region where Ukrainian troops have been seizing land since August. “We see an increase in North Koreans, but we don’t see any increase in the reaction from our partners,” he said.
• Pentagon spokesman Major General Patrick Ryder confirmed there are at least 10,000 North Korean troops in Kursk, but could not corroborate reports that they were engaged in combat.
• In a joint statement, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul condemned North Korea’s supply of weaponry to Moscow and demanded it withdraw the troops it has sent to Russia. The pair condemned North Korea’s “unlawful arms transfers to the Russian Federation for its use in attacking Ukraine” and demanded an end to “unlawful military cooperation”.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korea’s Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui in the Kremlin. Putin noted they were meeting on Russia’s National Unity Day, and Choe conveyed “sincere, warm, comradely greetings” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Diplomacy

• Germany will give Ukraine another 200 million euros ($218m) in aid to support the country, Foreign Minister Baerbock said during her visit to Kyiv.
• Ukraine would not be opposed if Qatar or any other country were to negotiate an agreement on energy security via separate talks with Ukraine and Russia, Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said.

Russian affairs

• Putin accepted the sudden resignation of the Rostov region’s governor. The region, on the border with Ukraine, has been plagued by Ukrainian drones and was where Wagner Group forces started a short-lived mutiny against Moscow in June last year.
• Maia Sandu, who has long denounced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and accused it of plotting to topple her administration, has claimed victory in a closely-fought presidential run-off in Moldova.
• Zelenskyy congratulated Sandu on her election victory and reaffirmed Kyiv’s commitment to working on a common goal towards EU membership. Russia’s Foreign Ministry labelled the election the “most undemocratic” in the country’s post-Soviet history.

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