Image source, Reuters

A Russian drone attack in the Ukrainian city of Sumy killed two people and injured 12 this morning, regional authorities said in a statement.

Residential apartment buildings, a shop and cars were damaged in the strike.

Russia has targeted critical infrastructure in Sumy, which is about 30km (19 miles) from the Russian border, in recent weeks.

Jean Mackenzie
Seoul correspondent

Russia is estimated to have supplied North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil since March this year, according to satellite imagery analysis from the Open Source Centre, a non-profit research group based in the UK.

The oil is payment for the weapons and troops Pyongyang has sent Moscow to fuel its war in Ukraine, leading experts and UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have told the BBC.

These transfers violate UN sanctions, which ban countries from selling oil to North Korea, except in small quantities, in an attempt to stifle its economy to prevent it from further developing nuclear weapons.

The satellite images, shared exclusively with the BBC, show more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arriving at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East a total of 43 times over the past eight months.

Continue to read Jean Mackenzie's story on North Korea and Russia

Image source, Getty Images

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia's use of a new ballistic missile on Dnipro yesterday shows a "clear and severe escalation" of the war.

"The use of a ballistic missile against Ukraine today is yet more proof that Russia has no interest in peace," Zelensky said in his nightly address yesterday.

The move was Russian leader Vladimir Putin's "second step" in escalating the war, Zelensky said, the first being the use of more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers in the ongoing conflict.

Zelensky said Putin "disregards calls from China, Brazil, European countries, the United States, and others" and he is "doing everything to prolong" the conflict which started more than a thousand days ago.

"The world must respond," he said, saying that a "lack of tough reactions to Russia’s actions sends a message that such behaviour is acceptable".

"Russia must be forced into real peace, which can only be achieved through strength. Otherwise, there will be endless Russian strikes, threats, and destabilisation - not just against Ukraine."

Image source, Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday morning was carried out as a response to the use by Ukraine of US and UK long-range weaponry to hit targets inside Russia.

Putin added that Russia could attack military facilities of those countries which allowed their weapons to be used for this purpose.

He said that the strike was carried out with "a new conventional intermediate-range missile" codenamed Oreshnik, which he claimed travelled at a speed of 10 Mach, or 2.5-3km/s.

Putin also said Russia was "ready for any developments. If anyone still doubts this, they shouldn’t. There will always be a response".

• Vladimir Putin said Russia hit Ukraine with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile

• The Russian president said this was in response to Ukraine's use of American and British long-range weapons

• Putin suggested that Russia could attack military facilities of those countries which allowed their weapons to be used to target inside Russia

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s use of the new missile was a “clear and severe escalations in the scale and brutality of the war”
• The UN and EU both condemned the use of the new weapon and called for descalation

• Ukraine says the target of the attack was infrastructure in the eastern city of Dnipro

Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Dnipro, Ukraine

Ukraine and its allies are still digesting the implications of Russia's use of a new type of ballistic missile, which hit a military facility here in Dnipro early yesterday.

President Zelensky said the use of a ballistic missile was yet more proof that Russia had no interest in peace. He criticised what he called the lack of a strong reaction from Ukraine's allies.

Putin is very sensitive to this, Zelensky said. He's testing you.

Most observers agree that the strike on Dnipro, which used a new type of ballistic missile, with multiple warheads, was designed to send a warning: that Russia could, if it chose, use it to deliver a nuclear weapon.

But such nuclear sabre-rattling is hardly a new feature of the war and western officials say they see no real sign that Russia is heading in that direction.

Putin's threat to use his weapons against Ukraine’s allies is also not new. But with western weapons being used inside Russia and North Korean troops joining the fight, Putin is right about something: this conflict is becoming more global.

Andrew Humphrey
Live page editor

Good morning, we'll be bringing you the latest news and reaction from the war in Ukraine after President Zelensky warned that the “world must respond” to the use of a new type of missile Russia used in an attack yesterday.

Zelensky said the strike was a “clear and severe escalation” in the war and showed that Russia was not interested in peace.

For his part, Russia's President Putin made a television address to the nation in which he claimed his military had deployed an intermediate-range ballistic missile capable of travelling at hypersonic speeds. He said the strike had been in response to Ukraine using Western long-range weaponry inside Russian territory.

Putin also issued a warning to those nations that supply weapons used by Ukraine to attack Russia that they could be targeted.

Stay with us as we keep you up to date with developments.