Ukraine-Russia war latest: Warning over North Korea missile strikes as French jets arrive to bolster Kyiv

The Kremlin on Thursday removed the head of Russia’s space agency after a tenure of less than three years that was scarred by the spectacular failure of Russia’s first mission to the moon in 47 years.

In a statement, the Kremlin said Yuri Borisov, who had headed Roscosmos since July 2022, had been relieved of his post. It did not state a reason.

He was replaced by deputy transport minister Dmitry Bakanov, who before joining the government had been in charge of a satellite company.

Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as a leading power in space exploration. But its ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its uncrewed Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land.

Borisov, despite that failure, had laid out ambitious plans for the coming years as Russia prepares to launch its own orbital space station. The new project will replace the ageing International Space Station (ISS) where Russia has collaborated closely with the United States even after relations were plunged into crisis because of the war in Ukraine.

Last year Borisov approved a schedule under which the first two modules of the new Russian station would launch in 2027. Russia has said it plans to maintain a continuous crewed presence in space and conduct scientific, economic and security-related projects that were not possible in the Russian segment of the ISS.

The first batch of French Mirage 2000 fighter jets has arrived in Ukraine half a year after president Emmanuel Macron announced the plan to send them.

French armed forces minister Sebastien Lecornu announced the jets arrived in Ukraine this morning.

“With Ukrainian pilots on board who have been trained for several months in France, they will now participate in defending the skies of Ukraine,” he wrote.

Last December, a group of Ukrainian pilots finished a six-month training programme to operate the Mirage 2000s at a base in Nancy, north-west France.

The French, meanwhile, tweaked the jets to make them more suitable for war in Ukraine. The jets were designed to focus on air-to-air combat but Mr Lecornu said they had to be modified to be more focused on air-to-ground warfare. Their electronic warfare systems were also reinforced.

A shopping centre in Ukraine’s second-largest city has been destroyed following a Russian drone attack overnight.

Local officials said the Barabashovo market in northeast Ukraine’s Kharkiv, home to around 1.2 million people, was hit by the debris of a downed Russian drone.

Governor Oleh Syniehubov said roughly 100 kiosks had been destroyed. No casualties were reported.

It is at least the third time Russian aerial attacks have hit the market. In March 2022, as Russian forces began occupying Kharkiv (it was liberated in September that year), a double-tap strike on the market killed one emergency worker and injured a second.

In July, as Ukraine was preparing Kharkiv’s liberation, a Russian cluster munition attack killed two men and wounded 21 more.

North Korean ballistic missiles fired at Ukraine by Russian forces since late December have been far more precise than salvos of the weapons launched over the past year, two senior Ukrainian sources told Reuters.

At a time when Moscow’s burgeoning ties with Pyongyang are causing alarm from Washington to Seoul, the increase in accuracy – to within 50-100m of the intended target – suggests North Korea is successfully using the battlefield to test its missile technology, the sources said.

A military source, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive information, described a marked improvement in the precision in all the more than 20 North Korean ballistic missiles that hit Ukraine over the past several weeks. A second source, a senior government official familiar with the issue, confirmed the findings when asked by Reuters.

Yang Uk, a weapons expert at Seoul’s Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said such improvements in North Korean missile capabilities have troubling implications for its potential to threaten South Korea, Japan and the United States or sell upgraded weapons to “failed” states or armed groups.

“That can have a major impact on stability in the region and the world,” he said, in response to questions for this story.

North Korea’s military programmes have developed rapidly in recent years, including short- and intermediate-range missiles that Pyongyang says can be tipped with nuclear warheads. However, until its involvement in Ukraine, the long-isolated nation had never tested the new weapons in combat.

He said on Monday he wants “equalisation” from Ukraine for the US’ “close to $300 billion” in support.

“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths,” Mr Trump said. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things.”

Below, we look at where these resources are in Ukraine, and why Kyiv has struggled to mine these minerals.