US President Joe Biden has warned Chinese President Xi Jinping that North Korea’s sending of troops to Russia’s war with Ukraine has raised concerns in Washington, Beijing and European capitals. He urged North Korea to refrain from expanding its support. In their last meeting before the Trump administration took office, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting on Saturday. “China’s publicly stated position regarding the war in Ukraine is that the conflict should not be escalated or escalated, and the introduction of the (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) military is in direct contradiction to that,” Biden said. This was pointed out by the assistant security officer. Sullivan added that the president also noted that China has “influence and capabilities that should be used to prevent further escalation and further escalation of the conflict by bringing in more North Korean troops.”
Japan’s foreign minister arrived in Kiev on Saturday to discuss deepening military alliances with North Korea and Russia, including sending thousands of troops. Tsuyoshi Iwaya is scheduled to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sibikha to reaffirm Japan’s “strong support” for Ukraine against Russian aggression and discuss further sanctions against Russia. He warned on Saturday that North Korea’s military involvement in the Ukraine conflict would have an “extremely serious” impact on East Asian security.
British MPs and MPs from all parties have called on the government to support Ukraine’s demands for a “just peace” through diplomatic pressure and military aid. Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Saturday backed a swift push to broker an agreement. “For our part, we must make every effort to end this war next year and through diplomatic means,” he told Ukrainian Radio. February 2025 marks the third anniversary of the invasion of Moscow, and in recent months Russian forces have gained the upper hand over Kiev’s outnumbered and outgunned soldiers.
On Saturday, the G7, which includes many of Kiev’s main backers, pledged sanctions targeting Russia, saying it remained the only obstacle to a just peace in Ukraine. “We remain united on Ukraine’s side,” the Group of Seven industrialized nations said in a statement marking the 1,000th day of the invasion. “The G7 affirms its commitment to impose severe costs on Russia through sanctions, export controls and other effective measures,” the statement added.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced on Saturday that Russian forces had captured two more villages in the eastern Donetsk region: Makarivka, southwest of the main city of Krahov, and Hrihorivka, north of Krahov. The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not mention either village. Moscow’s forces hold control of Krahov, 7 kilometers from the large town of Pokrovsk, which has a thermal power plant and was one of Ukraine’s logistics mainstays for much of the war. President Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russian forces were suffering heavy losses and that advances were “slowing down” in some areas.
A group of four Russians and Belarusians who had been detained in the Central African region of Chad for more than a month returned to Moscow on Saturday, Russian media reported. State news agency RIA said the group also included sociologist Maxim Shugarai, who Western agencies said was an official with ties to the Wagner Group, a Russian private military group. Mr. Sugarei is subject to EU sanctions for overseeing a disinformation campaign to promote Wagner in Africa.
