Ukraine-Russia war latest: Kyiv summons US envoy as Trump administration plays down weapon shipments halt

North Korea is set to send up to 30,000 additional troops to support Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, an intelligence assessment by Kyiv has claimed.

The troops could arrive in the coming months, CNN reported after seeing the assessment. It would be an addition to the roughly 12,000 sent in November who helped Russia push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk region.

“There is a great possibility” the troops would fight in parts of Russian-occupied Ukraine, the report states. This would be an escalation after Pyongyang’s troops were previously restricted to fighting on Russian territory.

North Korean troops will be used “to strengthen the Russian contingent, including during the large-scale offensive operations”, the document adds. Moscow, it says, is capable of providing the necessary equipment and weaponry for the extra troops.

Only in late April 2025 did Vladimir Putin publicly admit North Korean troops had been deployed to fight alongside Russian forces.

The Ukrainian foreign and defence ministries have responded to the news that the US is set to halt some military aid to Kyiv.

Shipments of air defence missiles and other munitions have been halted due to concerns over the US’ own stockpiles at home.

Here is how the Ukrainian government has responded:

Ukrainian forces face a constant barrage of aerial glide bombs, drones and relentless assaults by small groups of Russian infantrymen in the Sumy region.

They endure the attacks to prevent Russian forces from being moved to other battlegrounds in the eastern Donetsk region.

Ukrainian forces intensified their own attacks in Sumy in April and even conducted a small offensive into Russia’s neighboring Kursk region to prevent up to 60,000 battle-hardened Russian forces from being moved to reinforce positions in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, Ukraine’s top army commander, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said last week.

If those troops had been moved, they could have increased the tempo of Russian attacks across the front line and stretched Ukrainian forces thin.

The strategy did not come without criticism. Commanders who were ordered to execute it complained that it resulted in unnecessary loss of life.

Russian forces have penetrated up to 7 kilometers (4 miles) into the northern Sumy region from different directions along the border.

Ukrainian forces are determined to keep them there to avoid freeing up Russian forces to fight in the east. So far they have succeeded, locking up to 10,000 Russian troops in the Glushkovsky district of the Kursk region alone, where Ukraine maintains a small presence after being mostly forced out by Russian and North Korean troops earlier in the year.

Vladimir Putin held a “substantial” phone call with French president Emmanuel Macron on the Iran-Israel conflict and Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, the first discussion between the two leaders since September 2022.

Mr Macron’s office said the call lasted two hours and that the French leader had called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and the start of negotiations on ending the conflict.

The Russian president reiterated his position that any possible peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine should have a “comprehensive and long-term character” and be based on “new territorial realities,” the Kremlin quoted Putin as saying.

Mr Putin has previously said Ukraine must accept Russia’s annexation of swaths of its territory as part of any peace deal. Mr Macron has said Ukraine alone should decide on whether or not to accept territorial concessions.

During Tuesday’s call, Mr Macron’s office said, “the president emphasised France’s unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The pair aim to continue their discussions, the French president’s office said. He also spoke with Volodymyr Zelensky before and after the exchange.

The Kremlin has welcomed the news of a halt on US weapons shipments to Ukraine, saying the conflict would end sooner if fewer arms reached Ukraine.

“The fewer the number of weapons that are delivered to Ukraine, the closer the end of the Special Military Operation,” stated Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov yesterday, using the Moscow’s offiical terminology to describe its military invasion of Ukraine.

While Patriot missile stocks have long been a concern, holding up some of the other weaponry was puzzling, said retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, an analyst at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies in Washington.

“This is going to hurt Ukrainian civilians,” Admiral Montgomery said. “There is still an opportunity here for the president to rein in the Pentagon before real damage is done” he said.

The halt of some weapons shipments from the US is a blow to Ukraine at a time when Russia has ramped up its attacks, launching its biggest aerial raids of the war so far in recent weeks.

Talks to try and agree a ceasefire between the two sides, efforts championed by US president Donald Trump, have ground to a halt.

To date, the US has provided Ukraine more than $66bn worth of weapons and military assistance since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

Over the course of the war, the US has routinely pressed for allies to provide air defence systems to Ukraine. But many are reluctant to give up the high-tech systems, particularly countries in Eastern Europe that also feel threatened by Russia.

The US Defence Department did not provide details on what specific weapons were being held back.

“America’s military has never been more ready and more capable,” spokesperson Sean Parnell said, adding that the major tax cut and spending package moving through Congress “ensures that our weapons and defence systems are modernised to protect against 21st century threats for generations to come”.

The Trump administration will block delivering to Ukraine some air defence missiles, precision-guided artillery and other weapons as part of its announced pause to some arms shipments to the war-hit nation.

Nearly 8,500 155mm artillery shells, more than 250 precision GMLRS (mobile rocket artillery) missiles, Patriot missiles and 142 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles, people aware of US president Donald Trump’s decision told Reuters.

The halt comes amid US concerns that its own stockpiles have declined too much, officials said.

The details on the weapons in some of the paused deliveries were confirmed by a US official and former national security official familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to discuss what is are being held up as the Pentagon has yet to provide details.

This is a massive setback for Ukraine, which has faced increasing, and more complex, air barrages from Russia during the more than three-year-long war.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell declined during a briefing yesterday to detail which weapons were being held back but said a pause to consider the health of the US stockpile was necessary.

“I think that for a long time, four years under the Biden administration, we were giving away weapons and munitions without really thinking about how many we have,” Mr Parnell said.

He added, “And I think that this president was elected on putting this country first and defending the homeland.”

Ukraine has summoned the acting US envoy to Kyiv to warn the Trump administration that any “delay or procrastination” in supplying the war-hit nation with weapons will only benefit Russia.

The US has blocked a number of planned shipments to Ukraine that included Patriot air defence missiles and precision-guided artillery, Hellfire missiles and Howitzer rounds, warning that its own domestic stockpiles were running low.

In a statement, it said deputy foreign minister Mariana Betsa expressed gratitude to deputy chief of mission John Ginkel for US support, but warned that a cut-off in aid, particularly air-defence systems, would embolden Russia.

“The Ukrainian side emphasised that any delay or procrastination in supporting Ukraine’s defence capabilities will only encourage the aggressor to continue the war and terror, rather than seek peace,” it said.