Ukraine on Wednesday cut ties with North Korea over Pyongyang's recognition of two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine, while Russian forces announced the storming of a strategic city.
"We view this decision as an attempt by Pyongyang to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
Earlier, pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine announced that North Korea had recognized the self-proclaimed "republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The separatists added that this step follows Syria's recognition of them late last month, in addition to Russia itself, which recognized the "two republics" shortly before it launched the war on Ukraine.
The separatist "embassy" in Moscow posted a picture on the Telegram application of its envoy Olga Makeyeva receiving what it described as a letter of recognition from North Korean Ambassador Sin Hong Chol.
Previous celebrations in the separatist-held city of Luhansk in eastern Ukraine (Reuters-Archive)
Neighboring Donetsk and Lugansk are located in the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine, which is famous for its coal production.
Since 2014, this region has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatist forces, in conjunction with Russia's annexation of Crimea.
The Donetsk separatists opened an embassy in Moscow on Tuesday, after which they reported ongoing talks with North Korea about possible recognition.
storming a city
Meanwhile, Russian forces and their loyalists stormed the city of Seversk in the eastern Donetsk region.
The official Russian news agency "TASS" quoted Vitaly Kiselyov, the assistant interior minister of the self-declared republic, as saying that the city could fall completely within two days.
For its part, news websites close to the Ukrainian army broadcast pictures of what they said was the bombing of Russian ammunition depots in Donetsk Province (eastern Ukraine).
And the Ukrainian governor of Lugansk had talked about a slowdown in the delivery of ammunition to Russian forces in western Lyschansk, due to what he described as the successful strikes by Ukrainian forces on Russian ammunition depots.
On the other hand, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the elimination of more than 350 Ukrainian soldiers while targeting the shipyard in the Mykolaiv region with long and accurate missiles.
Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that over the past day, Russian forces shot down 4 Ukrainian planes in Donetsk and Mykolaiv regions.
American accusations
In a new US anti-Russian stance, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accused Russia of forcing up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to leave for Russia, and accused Moscow of carrying out a deliberate criminal operation to depopulate some parts of Ukraine.
Blinken said in a statement a day before the "Accountability Conference on Ukraine", which is being held in The Hague to consider possible war crimes committed in Ukraine, that Moscow is conducting a "sifting" process to transfer Ukrainians from the occupied eastern and southern regions into Russian territory.
"The illegal transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons, and is a war crime," Blinken said.