North Korea is preparing to send 10,000 fresh recruits to fight in Russia’s war in Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian president accused Vladimir Putin of embarking on a recruitment drive from foreign countries, and warned foreign governments to “counter” this.

“We also have new data on the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia,” he wrote.

“There are currently more than 8,000 North Korean troops on Russian territory. In addition, preparations are underway to deploy another 10,000 troops – they are being selected for training and subsequent deployment to Russia.

“In return, Russia is paying, among other things, with technology: production of shahed-type attack drones has been established in North Korea with Russian technical support. This is how evil encroaches, and how a threat to life in one part of the world spreads to other parts. This can only be overcome together.”

As warnings increase about a Russian attack on a NATO country, real-world war-games, whether played out around a conference table or on the ground as military exercises, are happening all the time. But the real danger is the potential for hysteria, fear and miscalculation to turn a shadow war into something much worse, writes Owen Matthews.

Residents across a Polish border community received three emergency phone alerts in a single day, warning that a missile or drone could enter from Ukraine.

Above the eastern village of Dorohusk, vapour trails carved through the pale blue sky while military helicopters rumbled overhead. Just two kilometres (1.24 miles) away, traffic at the border crossing into Ukraine was halted three times, with personnel evacuated from the checkpoint on one occasion.

Thursday’s alerts and operational stoppages highlight an uneasy reality along Poland’s eastern frontier, where the war in Ukraine — now four and a half years old — feels increasingly immediate.

At least 10 people have been killed in strikes across Ukraine on Monday, officials said.

Two people were killed when a drone hit the National Academy of Sciences ⁠in central Kyiv on Monday, as Russia pounded the heart of the Ukrainian capital with some of the most persistent drone strikes since the start of the war.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said nine people had been killed and more than 80 injured in Russian drone strikes throughout the country.

Two people were killed in the assault on the Academy of Sciences building in the heart of the capital. Emergency services said later in the evening that one of the dead had been recovered from under rubble.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 24 people had been ⁠injured in several attacks on the capital, six of whom were being treated in hospital.

Pope ​Leo has urged Russia and Ukraine to sit down and discuss how to end their four-year war, hours after he had urged ⁠European leaders seeking to end conflicts to make concessions to achieve peace.

The first US pope also decried national leaders who he said are “beginning to speak about nuclear ⁠weapons and wars that ​are becoming ⁠ever more destructive,” addressing a press conference aboard his flight to Rome after a ⁠four-day trip to France.

Leo said the 1.4-billion-member Catholic ​Church ⁠has an obligation to ‌call for peace and respect of human life.

“The Church has a responsibility to promote these ‌values, continually inviting leaders — from Russia and ‌Ukraine, as well as other countries — to come together, sit down, engage in dialogue,” he said.

He added leaders ⁠must “seek ways to solve problems without continuing these wars, which no longer make sense.”

“This is not about being political or nonpolitical, but there needs to be a voice that seeks to promote the values of human dignity, the importance of life, ‌and the possibility of perhaps spending more on ​health and education and less on weapons,.”

Earlier on Monday, ⁠the pope said Europe must be willing ⁠to sacrifice some positions to achieve peace in a speech ‌in Metz, France, ​where he laid out ‌his clearest vision yet ​for the future of the continent.

After more than four years of war, Ukrainian troops continue to keep Russia at bay in key cities in the eastern Donetsk region. Askold Krushelnycky travels to the frontlines to meet the ex-prisoners and former police officers who have formed an unlikely alliance to defend their country.

One person has died and at least three have been injured in a Russian strike on the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, according to President Zelensky.

In a post on X, he said children were among the injured after the attack on Monday.

It came as part of a wider bombardment that killed at least seven people and wounded more than 50 others.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said ⁠on Monday its forces had struck fuel and telecommunications infrastructure in ⁠Kyiv, as ​well ⁠as several cargo vessels that ⁠it alleged were supplying the ​Ukrainian ⁠military.

The ministry ‌said the Russian strikes hit three cargo vessels ‌bound for Odesa ‌and another cargo vessel in the ⁠port of Chornomorsk. A ship repair facility in the port of Izmail was also struck, it added.

The ministry said ‌several data centres ​in Kyiv were ‌hit in overnight ⁠and daytime attacks.

The Independent ⁠could not independently verify ‌the ​ministry’s reports.

Berlin said on Monday that its first direct talks with Moscow since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine showed the two sides remain “miles apart” and that Russia is still unwilling to engage in serious negotiations to end the war.

“Our positions ​were, ⁠of course, miles ‌apart, a fact that has once again become ‌apparent,” a foreign ‌ministry spokesperson said, two days after a meeting between ⁠German foreign minister Johann Wadephul and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The spokesperson added that the talks had reinforced Berlin’s conclusion that Moscow remains `unwilling to negotiate either `a ceasefire or an end to the war in Ukraine.