Putin and Kim's new pact fuels fears of escalation in Ukraine war

It happened while you were sleeping. Here’s what world agencies reported overnight from Sunday to Monday.

• Tensions are rising. Dictators Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty last Wednesday. The highest-ranking Korean state official, Marshal Jong Chon, Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, criticized the United States for expanding military aid to Ukraine, reaffirming Korean support for Moscow in the war against Ukraine. He said that Russia has "the right to decide on any kind of retaliatory attack," adding that if Washington continues to "push Ukraine into a proxy war against Russia," this could trigger an even stronger reaction from Moscow and a "new world war".

• At least 17 people, including 15 police officers, were killed on Sunday in terrorist attacks on two Orthodox churches, two synagogues, and a police station in Derbent and Makhachkala in Dagestan in the Russian North Caucasus.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is demanding further supplies of air defense systems from the West and new agreements on the scope of their use in the fight against Russia. "This issue will determine the end date of the war," declared the Ukrainian leader.

• Vladimir Putin recently visited North Korea and Vietnam. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, his freedom to travel has been severely restricted. There are only a few countries that the Kremlin leader can visit.