A manufacturing plant in Russia’s Tatarstan region has significantly scaled up its production of Iranian-designed drones, using a range of Chinese components, and recruiting a low-skilled workforce of Russian teenagers and African women,

Russia's aviation watchdog said on Friday that an Azerbaijan Airlines plane which crashed in Kazakhstan on Wednesday had decided to reroute from its original destination in Chechnya amid dense fog and a local alert over Ukrainian drones.

Russia's aviation chief said Friday that an Azerbaijani Airlines plane that eventually crashed in Kazakhstan tried to land in the Chechen city of Grozny as it was being attacked by

North Korean troops deployed in Russia's Kursk region are suffering heavy losses and being left unprotected by the Russian forces they are fighting alongside, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.

The first North Korean soldier taken prisoner of war by Ukrainian forces while fighting for Russia has died of his injuries, South Korean intelligence said Friday.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Russia was trying to "conceal losses" of North Korean troops fighting against Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is open to a Slovakian proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine to end a conflict he said Russia was determined to bring to a conclusion.

Slovakia on Friday confirmed its readiness to host peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, despite Kyiv's accusation that it is playing into the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.