KYIV, Ukraine — A massive drone strike rattled Moscow and its suburbs Saturday night into Sunday, injuring several people and temporarily halting traffic at some of Russia’s busiest airports, officials reported. Meanwhile, a huge nighttime wave of Russian drones targeted Ukraine.
This came after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law a pact with North Korea on Saturday night, obliging the two countries to provide immediate military aid using “all means” if either is attacked. The agreement marks the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.
Last week, Ukraine said its troops engaged for the first time with North Korean units. U.S. officials earlier confirmed the deployment of at least 3,000 North Korean troops to Russia, while Kyiv has repeatedly said the number is far higher.
The chief of the U.K. defense staff, Tony Radakin, told the BBC that Russian forces had suffered their worst month of casualties in October since the invasion of Ukraine started in February 2022. He said Moscow’s troops suffered an average of 1,500 dead and wounded per day, bringing their total losses in the war to 700,000.
Radakin said ordinary Russians were paying “an extraordinary price” for the war.
