Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin 'wants North Korean soldiers at border with Ukraine', expert says; video shows Kim Jong Un arriving in Russia
 Vladimir Putin will attempt to get ammunition from his meeting with Kim Jong Un, defence analyst Professor Michael Clarke has said. Offering his analysis of the approaching meeting between the two leaders, Clarke said North Korea will attempt to get grain and food out of the meeting while Russia will look for ammunition. "Around a quarter of North Korea's population is said by the UN to be starving and the other three quarters are at subsistence levels," he said. "So they certainly need food and oil." Clarke said the Russian army had probably used between 8-11 million artillery rounds so far in the war. "They need ammunition and that's what they will get out of it," he added. "The war of course just goes on absorbing more ammunition." The defence analyst also said the Russian army was moving its troops and amassing men near Kharkiv for a "big counter push". You can watch Clarke's full analysis here... Vladimir Putin critic Alexei Navalny could be included in a multilateral prisoner exchange between the West and Russia, officials have told The Wall Street Journal. In 2021, the Russian leader called on his top security adviser to look at a prisoner swap to release assassin Vadim Krasikov, who was found guilty for the assassination of Chechen dissident Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Germany in 2019. The court found the Russian national was an officer of Russia's FSB intelligence service and tasked with carrying out assassinations on foreign soil. Following Krasikov's guilty verdict, he was sentenced to life in prison and Germany declared two Russian diplomats "undesirable persons". However, the hitman's release has been raised by the Kremlin in negotiations with Western officials in recent years. And now, Western officials have told the American paper that a multilateral deal to swap Russian detainees in Western countries could take place, this could also involve Mr Navalny. Last month, Mr Navalny was sentenced by a court to 19 years in jail after being found guilty of extremism charges relating to the activities of his Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK). He is already serving a nine-year term for a number of charges that he claims are politically motivated. |
