Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council and a former defence minister, has warned that the risk of an armed clash between nuclear powers is growing, the state TASS news agency reported today.

Shoigu, a close aide of Russian president Vladimir Putin, said that increasing geopolitical rivalry between large states on the world stage was raising the risk of such a clash.

He also accused the Nato military alliance of increasing its activities close to the eastern flank of Russia and Belarus and of rehearsing offensive as well as defensive scenarios there.

Ending the war in Ukraine will only be possible if both sides are willing to make compromises, the new US secretary of state Marco Rubio has said.

In a conversation with journalists after being confirmed in his role, he said according to CNN: “We want the war to end. That’s pretty clear.

“You saw the President talked about, he wants to be a president that promotes peace and ends conflicts, and it’ll be complicated as well.

“Those are complicated things. I couldn’t put a time frame on it, other than to say that anytime you bring an end to a conflict between two sides, neither of whom can achieve their maximum goals, each side is going to have to give up something.”

Achieving peace is a priority for president Donald Trump’s administration, Mr Rubio added. He did not specify what type of concessions Ukraine would need to make.

North Korea has suffered nearly 40 per cent casualties among its forces fighting alongside Russia in the western Kursk region, Western officials told the BBC.

Out of the estimated 11,000 troops sent from North Korea, 4,000 were battle casualties in just three months of fighting – including those killed, wounded, missing or captured – the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Of these 4,000 losses, nearly 1,000 are believed to have been killed by mid-January.

Ukrainian officials are yet to release their own tally. North Korea has not issued any comment on the presence of its troops inside Russia.

Russia’s air defence systems intercepted and destroyed 121 drones launched by Ukraine overnight, its defence ministry said today.

The drones were downed over 13 Russian regions, including seven over Moscow and the nearby region, the ministry said in a statement.

Unofficial Russian Telegram channels reported a “large number” of drones over the Kursk region and posted videos of explosions.

Kursk mayor Igor Kutsak said the attack had damaged power lines and cut off electricity to one city district.

Britain said it monitored a Russian spy ship in the English Channel in recent days and would strengthen its response to secret operations by Russian ships and aircraft in an effort to protect undersea cables.

Defence minister John Healey said Yantar, a Russian spy vessel used for intelligence and mapping critical infrastructure on the sea floor, entered British waters on Monday and the Royal Navy tracked it for two days until it entered Dutch waters. Russia’s embassy in London did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

“We will not shy away from robust action to protect Britain,” Mr Healey said on Wednesday. “We are strengthening our response to ensure that Russian ships and aircraft cannot operate in secrecy near UK or Nato territory.”

Worries over the potential sabotage of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been growing after a string of outages in the Baltic Sea following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Britain decided to send maritime patrol and surveillance aircraft to help Nato’s efforts to protect cables in the Baltic Sea, Sir John announced, adding that it would also deploy an advanced AI system to help safeguard undersea infrastructure.

President Donald Trump claimed in part two of a televised interview that the nearly three-year-old war between Russia and Ukraine that started when Moscow’s forces kicked off an invasion in 2022 was the fault of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s failure to preemptively capitulate before Russian troops began their attack.

Trump made the incendiary comments in a pre-taped interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity that aired Thursday on Hannity’s program.

After Hannity asked about Trump’s threat to impose tariffs as a penalty on Russia if the Ukrainian war continues much longer, Trump responded that Zelensky “has had enough” and “wants to settle” with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

North Korea is preparing to send more troops to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces, despite suffering a high rate of losses and seeing some of its soldiers captured, South Korea’s military said.

“As four months have passed for the dispatch of troops for the Russia-Ukraine war, and multiple casualties and captives have occurred, (North Korea) is suspected to be accelerating follow-up measures and preparation for an additional dispatch of troops,” the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a statement today.

The JCS analysis did not specify what other follow-up measures Pyongyang might take.

North Korea is also preparing to launch a spy satellite and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), though there were no signs of immediate action on this front, the JCS said.

Pyongyang has deployed about 11,000 soldiers to support Moscow’s forces in Russia’s western Kursk region, according to Ukrainian and Western assessments. Ukraine seized Kursk in a surprise attack last year. More than 3,000 have been killed or wounded, according to Kyiv.

Ukrainians are using recordings of cat noises to lure Vladimir Putin’s forces into explosive-rigged traps, a Russian soldier has claimed.

With the grit and ingenuity of the Ukrainian army frequently evidenced in its success in defending against Russia’s vast invading force, it has now been claimed that they are turning to an unusual tactic in appealing to the Russians’ reported fondness for cats.

A Russian victory over Ukraine would greatly undermine the power of Nato and its credibility would cost trillions to restore, the alliance’s secretary general has warned.

Mark Rutte insisted that Ukraine‘s Western backers must not scale back the support they are providing to the country, almost three years after Vladimir Putin’s invasion began.

Nato has been increasing its forces along its eastern flank with Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, deploying thousands of troops and equipment. This is to deter Moscow from expanding its war into the territory of any of the organization’s 32 member countries.

Donald Trump urged Russian president Vladimir Putin to “settle now and stop this ridiculous war” in a post to his Truth Social site on Wednesday.

He said he had no desire to hurt Russia — which he noted had played a major role in securing victory for the Allies against Nazi Germany in the Second World War — and has a good relationship with Mr Putin, but warned of penalties if the war isn’t stopped soon.

“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries,” Mr Trump said.

Mr Trump has been sceptical of the billions of dollars the Biden administration provided Ukraine in weapons and other materiel to defend itself. He has often spoken of his desire to end the war and said on the campaign trail that he could end the conflict within 24 hours of taking office. That has not happened.