Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on Friday saying he was back at work in Kyiv after his landmark visit to Washington this week.

“I am in my office. We are working toward victory,” he said in the video posted to his Telegram channel.

“Two international visits this week are strong indicators that the Ukraine war is unlikely to end soon, and that another round of prolonged and bloody fighting is expected to unfold in the near future,” writes Kim Sengupta.

“At the same time, Vladimir Putin has met Alexander Lukashenko in Minsk as reports persist that the Kremlin may try to use Belarus once more as a launchpad for its next offensive, with yet another attempt to capture Kyiv and impose regime change.”

Russia has claimed Volodymyr Zelensky’s wartime visit to Washington proves he is not “striving for peace” in Ukraine, as it coincides with a $1.8bn military aid package from the United States.

The Ukrainian president received thunderous applause from members of Congress during his short, hastily-organised trip – his first outside the country since Russian troops invaded on 24 February.

He returned to Kyiv on Thursday after a brief stop in Poland where greeted President Andrzej Duda.

The new US deal includes supplies of the Patriot air defence system, the most powerful such weapons yet promised to Ukraine.

Alastair Jamieson reports:

The idea of a daring wartime trip by Volodymyr Zelensky to Washington had percolated for some time before the surprise visit was revealed just hours ahead of the Ukrainian president’s arrival.

During an October summit in Zagreb, House speaker Nancy Pelosi discussed with her counterpart in the Ukrainian parliament the prospect of Mr Zelensky addressing the US Congress.

Biden administration officials had similarly talked for months with Ukraine about a Zelensky visit to the White House, hoping for one before year’s end to send an unmistakeable signal of support ahead of a brutal winter that could deepen Russian president Vladimir Putin’s assault.

A senior Russian diplomat said on Friday that talks on security guarantees for Russia cannot take place while Nato instructors and “mercenaries” remain in Ukraine, and while Western arms supplies to the country continue.

In an interview with Russian state-owned news agency TASS, Alexander Darchiev, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s North America department, said talks would be premature “until the flood of weapons and financing for the (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky regime stops, American and Nato servicemen/mercenaries/instructors are withdrawn”.

Russia typically refers to foreign volunteers fighting with the Ukrainian army as “mercenaries”, and has convicted captured foreign fighters of acting as such.

Russian officials have increasingly stressed their openness to talks on Ukraine in recent weeks, even as they have emphasised that they do not believe Zelensky is interested in a peaceful settlement.

In his comments, Darchiev said that talks would also need to be preceded by “recognition of the realities we have defined on the ground”, an apparent reference to Russia‘s control of parts of eastern and southern Ukraine.

North Korea’s foreign ministry denied a media report it supplied munitions to Russia, calling it “groundless”, and denounced the United States for providing lethal weapons to Ukraine, the North’s official KCNA news agency reported on Friday.

Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun reported earlier that North Korea had shipped munitions, including artillery shells, to Russia via train through their border last month and that additional shipments were expected in the coming weeks.

“The Japanese media’s false report that the DPRK offered munitions to Russia is the most absurd red herring, which is not worth any comment or interpretation,” a ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried by the KCNA.

The White House said on Thursday the North has completed an initial arms delivery to a private Russian military company, the Wagner Group, to help bolster Russian forces in Ukraine.

The North Korean foreign ministry statement did not make any mention of Wagner.

According to the White House, Wagner took delivery of infantry rockets and missiles from North Korea, though Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin denied the assertion as “gossip and speculation”.

“The DPRK remains unchanged in its principled stand on the issue of ‘arms transaction’ between the DPRK and Russia which has never happened,” the North Korean spokesperson said, adding it is the United States that is “bringing bloodshed and destruction to Ukraine by providing it with various kinds of lethal weapons.”

DPRK are the initials of the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

South Korea’s foreign ministry condemned the North’s reported arms dealing with the Wagner Group, stressing that Pyongyang is banned from any weapons transaction under the U.N. Security Council resolution.

“Our government has been communicating with the U.S. side on this, and supports the United States’ push to raise the issue at the U.N. Security Council,” the ministry said in a statement.

In a separate statement, the North Korean foreign ministry also slammed the United States’ attempt to issue a U.N. Security Council presidential statement on its latest intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

“The DPRK has already and clearly warned that such foolish attempt of the U.S. may entail a very undesirable consequence,” the spokesperson said in the statement, calling the U.S. move a “very dangerous act” that the North “has to counter with action”.

Russia said that Ukraine acquiring Patriot missiles from the United States, announced during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington, would not help settle the conflict or prevent Moscow from achieving its goals.

Though the Patriot air defence system is widely regarded as advanced, President Vladimir Putin dismissed it as “quite old”, telling reporters Moscow would find a way to counter it. At the same time, he said Russia wants an end to the war in Ukraine and that this would inevitably involve a diplomatic solution.

“Our goal is not to spin the flywheel of military conflict, but, on the contrary, to end this war,” Putin said.

“We will strive for an end to this, and the sooner the better, of course.”

These comments drew quick U.S. scepticism. White House spokesman John Kirby said Putin had “shown absolutely zero indication that he’s willing to negotiate” an end to the war.

“Everything he (Putin) is doing on the ground and in the air bespeaks a man who wants to continue to visit violence upon the Ukrainian people (and) escalate the war,” Kirby told reporters.

Russia has repeatedly said it is open to negotiations, but Ukraine and its allies suspect a ploy to buy time after a series of Russian battlefield defeats and retreats that have swung the momentum of the 10-month war in favour of Ukraine.

Officials in Russia are looking to prepare its forces for long-term challenges caused due to the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the British defence ministry said today.

The ministry pointed to Vladimir Putin’s meeting on Wednesday where he was presented with plans to expand the Russian military by around 30 per cent to 1.5 million personnel.

However, the MoD said it isn’t clear when this level would be achieved.

“Russian defence Minister Sergei Shigou explained that the expansion would involve at least two brigades in north-western Russia growing to divisional strength. He cited the supposed threat from Finland and Sweden’s accession to Nato,” according to the ministry’s latest intelligence update.

It added: “This constitutes one of the first insights into how Russia aspires to adapt its forces to the long-term strategic challenges resulting from its invasion of Ukraine.”

“It remains unclear how Russia will find the recruits to complete such an expansion at a time when its forces are under unprecedented pressure in Ukraine,” the ministry said.

Officials in the US defence department are contemplating training Ukrainian soldiers to operate the Patriot missile defence system as the war-hit country prepares to ward off growing Russian offence revived by Iranian drones this month.

The Pentagon is considering training Ukrainian soldiers to operate the surface-to-air missile system at a military base in the US, two defence department officials told news magazine Politico.

This was also confirmed by Joe Biden during his address at the Oval office alongside Volodymyr Zelensky.

“We’re going to continue to support Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, particularly air defence and that’s why we’re going to be providing Ukraine with Patriot missile battery and training your forces to be able to accurately use it,” he said in a joint address.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington proves he is not “striving for peace” in Ukraine, Russia said, pointing out that the high-level diplomatic gathering coincides with a $1.8bn military aid package to the country from the United States.

“They say they may send Patriot there, fine, we will crack the Patriot too,” Vladimir Putin said, adding that the deliveries will only extend the fighting. “Those who do it do so in vain, it only drags out the conflict.”

The Ukrainian president received thunderous applause from members of Congress during his short, hastily-organised trip – his first outside the country since Russian troops invaded on 24 February.

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