North Korea appears to have sent at least 3,000 more soldiers to Russia early this year, South Korea’s military said Thursday, demonstrating Pyongyang’s continued support for Moscow’s war on Ukraine as world leaders push for an end to the three-year conflict.

The reinforcements, sent in January and February, add to the roughly 11,000 troops North Korea has sent to Russia so far, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. About 4,000 of them have been killed or injured in combat, according to Seoul.

Pyongyang has also sent a “significant amount” of short-range ballistic missiles and about 220 pieces of 170-millimeter self-propelled howitzers and 240-millimeter multiple rocket launchers, South Korea said. It said the North’s contributions are “expected to increase according to the situation.”

News of North Korea’s continued support of Russia’s incursion comes as European leaders and allies are set to meet in Paris Thursday to discuss support for Ukraine and long-term stability in the region, amid shaky efforts by the White House to broker a ceasefire.

Following talks in Saudi Arabia this week, the US said both Russia and Ukraine agreed to stop using force in the Black Sea and uphold a previously announced pause on attacks against energy infrastructure. But Russia introduced some far-reaching conditions for signing up to the partial truce, which falls far short of a 30-day full ceasefire initially proposed by the White House.

The Kremlin said it would only implement the agreements once sanctions on its banks and exports are lifted, showing the significant gulf in expectations between the negotiating parties.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, have been deepening security ties since they signed a landmark defense pact last year and pledged to use all available means to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked.

Putin’s top security adviser Sergei Shoigu met with Kim last week in Pyongyang, where he conveyed Putin’s “warmest wishes and greetings,” Russian state-run news agency TASS reported.

“He pays the utmost attention to the implementation of agreements reached with you,” Shoigu told Kim, according to TASS.

Deepening partnership

The United States has warned that Russia may be close to sharing advanced space and satellite technology with North Korea, on top of military equipment and training it is already providing, in exchange for North Korean support for the war in Ukraine.

North Korean troops had been deployed to the Russian region of Kursk to repel Ukraine’s incursion since at least November. But they withdrew from the front lines in January after reports of mass casualties, Ukrainian officials said.

South Korean lawmaker Yoo Yong-won, who visited Ukraine in late February, said about 400 North Korean soldiers in Russia had been killed and about 3,600 injured as of February 26.

Since the war began, North Korea has also sent thousands of shipping containers of munitions or munitions-related material to Russia, and Moscow’s forces have launched North Korea-made missiles on Ukraine, according to US officials.

North Korean medical facilities have also treated hundreds of Russian soldiers injured in Ukraine, Moscow’s ambassador to Pyongyang said in an interview with state-run outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta in February.

Meanwhile, Russia supplies North Korea with coal, food and medicine, Ambassador Alexander Matsegora told the outlet.

He also said children of Russian troops killed in Ukraine had vacationed in North Korea last summer, and Russia and North Korea are developing student exchanges.

North Korean drones

South Korean officials have echoed US concerns that the deepening partnership between Russia and North Korea could facilitate technology transfers to the Kim regime.

This week, Kim oversaw a test of new AI-powered attack drones, North Korean state-run news agency KCNA reported, and directed that they be further developed “in keeping with the trend of modern warfare.”

Pyongyang also unveiled a new reconnaissance drone that could have partly come from Russia, South Korea’s military said Thursday.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman Lee Seong-jun said that the aircraft model had been modified from an original North Korean plane, but the “internal equipment and such parts could be related to Russia.”

Drones have become a central weapon in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. The number of Russian drone attacks on Ukraine skyrocketed from just 379 in May 2024 to nearly 2,500 in November.

Amid ongoing talks of a ceasefire, Ukraine and Russia have continued to exchange attacks. Late Wednesday, Russian forces launched a massive drone attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv, injuring at least nine people and damaging civilian infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities said.

“No country should have to go through this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram following the attack.

In an interview with Newsmax Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said he believes Russia wants to end the war, but “it could be they’re dragging their feet.”

In a small village in the Hebron hills of the occupied West Bank, Hamdan Ballal stood outside his house in a track suit with a black eye.

He held the hand of his 18-month-old daughter, who stood in a pool of his dried blood.

Things looked quite different for the award-winning director just weeks ago. He had flown to Los Angeles to accept an Oscar for the film, “No Other Land,” a documentary he co-directed about the violence and forced displacement of Palestinian villagers for illegal Israeli settlements in those same hills.

Ballal was attacked by a mob of Israeli settlers in front of his home, in the village of Susya on Monday evening.

“I thought they would kill me,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ballal said, Israeli soldiers soon arrived outside his home, where they shot live rounds into the air.

He said one soldier pushed his rifle into his leg and told him, “’After (shooting) in the air, I will put the shot in your body.’”

After the attack, Ballal and two other Palestinians were taken away by Israeli soldiers and detained in a military facility in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, where he said he was handcuffed, blindfolded and beaten.

The Israeli military called Ballal’s allegations that he was beaten in custody “baseless.”

Attacks on Palestinian farmers and activists in the occupied West Bank are not new.

However, the ferocity of the attack – and Ballal’s subsequent detention – made him feel that the settlers – and the Israeli military – were taking revenge for their film and its international reach.

“At that moment, I thought because of my Oscar, they wanted to kill me,” he said.

In detention, Ballal, who doesn’t speak Hebrew, said he heard the soldiers laughing when they said his name and the word “Oscar.”

The Israeli military said the Palestinian detainees were given medical treatment and “handcuffed in accordance with operational protocol.”

They accused Ballal of throwing stones at soldiers and said that he had been detained on suspicion of rock hurling, property damage, and endangering regional security.

“They change everything,” Ballal said of the military’s interpretation of the events.

“Why did the settlers come here to my house? To say hi to me? Or to give me flowers? No, they came here to attack, to kill, to push you to leave your home,” he said, adding that many Palestinian villagers eventually leave their homes after years of sustained violence.

“When they have the law in their hand, they can do whatever they want,” Ballal said of the settlers, underscoring what multiple human rights organizations have said about Israel’s role in backing settler violence – and settler impunity.

Amnesty International has called settler violence “part of a decades long state-backed campaign to dispossess, displace and oppress Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under Israel’s system of apartheid,” and that “Israeli forces have a track record of enabling settler violence.”

Behind his house, Ballal looked to his fields, where a perimeter of settler outposts were visible. He said that his family haven’t farmed much since Israel’s war in Gaza began following Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

“We didn’t plow it after October 7 because of the danger from the settlers,” he said.

Settler outposts are often established by Israeli settlers on hilltops with a few caravans and sometimes livestock to mark their claim.

Such land grabs go hand-in-hand with an escalation in violence by Israeli security forces and settlers against Palestinians, paving the way for settlement expansion, which is documented in Ballal’s film.

That violence has become even worse since the re-election of US President Donald Trump, a staunch supporter of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s settlement expansion policy in the West Bank, activists say.

In early January, Trump rescinded Biden-era sanctions on far-right settler groups and individuals accused of involvement in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. And during his first term, Trump abandoned the long-held position that Israeli settlement expansion in occupied Palestinian territories are illegal, contrary to most international law.

From January 2024 to 2025, at least 1,420 incidents of settler violence in the occupied West Bank were recorded, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Those incidents include settlers reportedly killing five Palestinians, including a child, and injuring 360 others, including 35 children, according to OCHA.

More than 26,100 Palestinian-owned trees – which are vital to the local economy – were also vandalized in that period, OCHA said.

On Sunday, Netanyahu’s cabinet approved a plan to separate and legalize 13 settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, a move that his far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich hailed as a move toward what he called “actual sovereignty” in the West Bank.

For Ballal, the assault – and Netanyahu’s moves – are even more of a reason to continue to fight for his community.

“I brought myself in this circle (of activism and filmmaking) because of my community, my villages – I need justice for them. Because of that, we made this movie, to bring attention to what’s happening in this area and what is happening there.”

Later in the afternoon, settlers brought their cows and sheep to graze on the farm next to Ballal’s land.

The settlers were accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

Ballal said that no amount of intimidation – from settlers or from the government – will push him from his home.

Standing under the sun, he added: “No other home. No other land.”

Sudan’s army says it has wrested control of the capital Khartoum from a feared militia accused of genocide after ousting it from the Presidential Palace and the city’s airport it had held since the start of a brutal two-year conflict.

But while the capture of Khartoum marks an important moment in the conflict, with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) deeply embedded elsewhere in Sudan and attempting to form a parallel government, analysts warn there is little likelihood of a swift resolution to the war.

Since April 2023, two of Sudan’s most powerful generals – Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), and former ally Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) – have engaged in a bloody feud over control of the country which is split between their strongholds.

The ruthless power struggle, which was essentially triggered by disagreements on how to restore civilian rule after the fall of former President Omar al-Bashir and a subsequent military coup, has left more than 28,000 people dead and 11 million homeless in what the United Nations has described as the world’s “most devastating humanitarian and displacement crisis.”

The military claims control of swaths of Sudan but almost all of Darfur, a region roughly the size of France, is held by the RSF, which also retains footholds in the neighboring states of West Kordofan and North Kordofan, according to a map released by the SAF.

“Khartoum is free,” declared SAF leader Burhan, who arrived at Khartoum’s airport by plane later Wednesday, in what the army said was the first flight received by the airport since the start of the war.

Yasser al-Atta, a deputy commander of the SAF told troops on Tuesday that the “decisive battle” to “eliminate the (RSF’s) rebellion” was now “in its final phase.”

Where’s the next battlefield?

The RSF grew out of the notorious Janjaweed militia that was accused of genocide against the non-Arab population in Darfur in the early 2000s.

In January, the United States accused the RSF of committing another genocide following what it said was the systematic murder of “men and boys – even infants – on an ethnic basis.” The RSF denounced the declaration as “inaccurate.”

“It (Darfur) is the RSF stronghold where they started as the Janjaweed and where they fought and continue to fight for land grabbing from the African indigenous population who own the land,” Al-Karib said.

But he added the war is far from over.

“The journey is still long because our goal is to cleanse the entire country.”

Civilians paying the price

Ridding the country of the RSF has come at a great cost for the Sudanese people who are often caught in the crossfire.

Civilians in North Darfur are the latest casualties of the conflict.

On Monday, many people were burned beyond recognition when bombs rained on a busy market in Tora, a rebel-run village in North Darfur, according to multiple local reports, as Sudan’s military targeted RSF enclaves.

Volker Türk, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a statement he was “deeply shocked” by the reports, saying that 13 of those victims were from a single family.

“Civilian objects remain an all-too-frequent target,” he added.

“We are the ones protecting civilians and preserving their lives and property, unlike the militia, which has continued since the outbreak of this war to bombard civilians with drones, artillery, and missiles,” he said.

Is Sudan headed for a reset or division?

The SAF’s military successes in Khartoum could further fracture Sudan or make the RSF “more amenable to being pushed into talks” with its rival, political analyst Kholood Khair said.

“This war has added an ugly ethnic taint to the political and economic conflicts that will be difficult to resolve even with a national level agreement,” she added.

In February, the RSF began an audacious move to create a parallel government in the areas under its control, signing a charter with political and smaller armed groups allied to it that seek the “establishment of a secular and democratic state based on freedom, equality, and justice.”

The RSF’s proposed state is “a quest for legitimacy,” according to Khair, who anticipates that the militia could now “seek to capture El Fasher” — the last major town in Darfur yet to be under its control.

Sudanese human rights lawyer Mutasim Ali believes that the RSF lacks the capacity to create a parallel state as it has been cut down to size by the SAF.

For activist Al-Karib, the RSF’s move to form a separate government is “a pressure card on (the) SAF to engage with them and to legitimize themselves as a political force in case of any political talks.”

As of today, the prospects for negotiations that could potentially usher in a coalition government between the SAF and RSF appear to be a long shot.

The SAF’s deputy commander Al-Atta told troops this week: “There will be no retreat or stop until the militia and its collaborating agents are eradicated from the lives of the Sudanese.”

With the military presumed to have the upper hand, it will likely press on, Ali said.

Four people were killed Thursday when a tourist submarine sank off Egypt’s Red Sea resort city of Hurghada, according to a Facebook post by the Russian embassy in Egypt.

It is unclear if all four were Russian, but the embassy said that they were aboard a submarine that carried 45 Russian tourists.

Local Egyptian media reported earlier Thursday that six people were killed in the incident. Those killed were foreign nationals, Reuters said, citing the Hurghada governorate office.

The incident occurred at 10:00 a.m. local time Thursday, when the submarine Sindbad “crashed at a distance of 1 km from the shore,” the embassy said.

Minors were among the passengers on the submarine, which belonged to a hotel bearing the same name, but it is unclear if they are among the fatalities.

The vessel was on a regular underwater excursion to inspect the coral reef, the embassy added.

“According to initial data, most of those on board were rescued and taken to their hotels and hospitals in Hurghada,” the embassy said, adding that “the fate of several tourists is being clarified.”

“Diplomats from the Consulate General are on the pier of the Sindbad Hotel,” the embassy said.

‘Years of experience’

The operator of the submarine has an “expert team” with “years of experience,” according to its website, adding that its submarines were “engineered in Finland to sustain underwater pressure up to 75m, ensuring safety and reliability.”

In an emergency, the company says “oxygen masks are located overhead and life vests under the seats.”

Sindbad Submarines says it has two “recreational submarines” in its fleet, each of which could carry 44 passengers and two pilots with a “sizable round viewing window” for each passenger.

The vessel could reach a depth of 25 meters below sea level for 40 minutes, allowing passengers to explore “500 meters of coral reef and its marine inhabitant.”

The “spacious air-conditioned cabin” is also said to feature “comfortable seats and personal TV monitors.”

In November, at least 16 people went missing after a tourist yacht sank in the Red Sea following warnings about rough seas. At the time, it was not immediately clear what caused the four-deck, wooden-hulled motor yacht to sink.

Egypt’s tourism economy is among its key sources of revenue.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Ukraine’s European allies say now is not the time for lifting sanctions on Russia, after Moscow said it would only agree to a US-brokered deal on ending fighting in the Black Sea if some sanctions were eased.

The leaders of the United Kingdom, France and Germany all affirmed at a summit on Thursday that Europe will not lift sanctions on Russia – a strong and seemingly coordinated message to the Trump administration, which has said it is still evaluating the Kremlin’s demands.

They spoke after a meeting of the so-called “coalition of the willing” in Paris which discussed how to bolster support for Kyiv and what role they might play if a peace deal is struck with Russia.

While divisions remain among the leaders about how to respond, they spoke in unison on Russia’s demand to ease sanctions.

“(There is) complete clarity that now is not the time for lifting of sanctions,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.

“Quite the contrary – what we discussed is how we can increase sanctions to support the US initiative, to bring Russia to the table through further pressure from this group of countries,” the British Prime Minister said, still striking a conciliatory tone toward the United States.

Starmer said the meeting involved more than 30 countries, including Ukraine’s European allies and NATO officials. He described the meeting as “very constructive.”

Echoing Starmer, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said stopping sanctions would be a “serious mistake.”

“It makes no sense to end the sanctions until peace has actually been achieved, and unfortunately we are still a long way from that, as you can see.”

This week the US announced that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to end fighting in the Black Sea. But Moscow soon followed up the statement by saying it would only implement the deal once some of the sanctions imposed on Russian banks and exports over its invasion of Ukraine are lifted.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday that the United States is “going to evaluate” Russia’s conditions to agreeing to a Black Sea partial ceasefire.

When the US negotiators return from Saudi Arabia, Rubio said, they will be “sitting down, going through the proposals, getting their impressions of the conversations, so we can more fully understand what the Russian position is, or what their ask is in exchange.”

“There was absolute clarity that Russia is trying to delay, is playing games. And we have to be absolutely clear about that,” Starmer added, speaking to reporters alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Zelensky also called for “more pressure” and “more packages of sanctions” on Russia. Countries at the summit in Paris agreed on “no lifting of any kind of sanctions until Russia will stop this war,” Zelensky said.

“They’re dragging-out the talks and trying to get the US stuck in endless, pointless discussions about fake ‘conditions’ just to buy time and then try to grab more land,” Zelensky added in a social media post, highlighting that Ukrainian intelligence indicates Russian forces are getting ready for new offensives against the Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine.

“Putin wants to negotiate over territory from a stronger position. He’s thinking only about war,” Zelensky said.

‘Reassurance forces’

France also shed more light on a proposal to send forces drawn from European armies to Ukraine in the event that a ceasefire is reached.

France and the United Kingdom previously floated the idea of sending peacekeepers to Ukraine and said they would be willing to put boots on the ground. But their latest discussions have honed in an alternate term: “reassurance forces.”

“These would be forces from a number of states… present in strategic locations pre-identified with the Ukrainians which would provide long-term support, reassurance for the armies and act as a deterrent to potential Russian aggression,” Macron said Thursday, adding that the forces would never serve as a “substitution for the Ukrainian army.”

The French president also announced plans for a French-British team to be sent to Ukraine to help Kyiv “prepare the format of tomorrow’s Ukrainian army.”

The United States is not currently a member of the ‘Coalition of the Willing’ with Macron acknowledging that although he “hopes” the US would support a European deployment to Ukraine, Europe needs to “prepare for a situation where they [the US] will not commit” to Ukraine’s security.

Russia has repeatedly said it would consider any foreign military presence in Ukraine “unacceptable.”