Russian President Vladimir Putin met Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in the Kremlin on Sunday, a rare visit by a European Union leader to Moscow as a contract allowing for Russian gas to transit through Ukraine nears expiry.

A major contract governing the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will come to end on January 1, with significant implications for Moscow’s exports to some European Union countries. “The end of the transit contract will mark an important shift because gas via Ukraine governed by the contract currently accounts for half of Russia’s remaining

North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military documents with Russian names and birthplaces, the Ukrainian military said, amid claims from Kyiv that Russia is trying to conceal the presence of foreign fighters on the battlefield.

One in 10 North Korean soldiers sent to the Ukraine war were killed or wounded in their first weeks of fighting, South Korea has claimed.