18 September 2026 | 00:14

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Ukraine is preparing new long-range operations against Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on X, reporting that he had received a briefing from the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Mykhailo Drapatyi.

“Tests of interceptors against jet-powered Shahed fighters produced another positive result: the downing of an enemy aircraft,” Zelensky said, announcing that “we will intensify these operations” and adding that “we are finding responses to Russian threats and building our own Ukrainian means to exert pressure on the enemy.”

The role of North Korean troops

“North Korea has sent between 30,000 and 50,000 soldiers to Russia. Russia allowed them to gain real combat experience and to train. Not in a digital simulator, but in real life.” Zelensky highlighted this as “a big problem, even more so for Pacific security,” and posted excerpts on X from an interview with the Japanese broadcaster NHK.

“For North Korea,” he continued, “it was not costly. They could do it here: deploy, learn and come back. Without suffering significant losses, except when they decided to fight us directly during the Kursk operation. They later chose not to enter Ukrainian territory to avoid heavy losses. But they learn, work with drones and drone operators, and train with them.”

Lavrov: “The West is preparing for war against us”

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, “Western countries are actively preparing for a war against Moscow, spreading the myth of an alleged Russian threat.” “Today, the ruling elites in most Western countries are trying to promote the myth of a threat from Russia while actively preparing for a war against us. They also accuse us of undermining European values, but we know well what those values are,” the minister said.

Lavrov stressed that the so-called “European values” mean only one thing: “Europe is once again ready to support Nazism.” “It concerns those who share these Nazi ideas and actually put them into practice in their countries, banning a language, a culture, and education,” he concluded.

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