More than 1,400 citizens from three dozen African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, Kyiv's foreign minister said on Friday.

A RUSSIAN TV star and real-life cop has been killed fighting against the Ukrainians at the frontline. Boris Polovinkin, who played the role of a Russian detective on TV like Inspector Morse, died

Ukraine's military reportedly struck and damaged Russia's Volgograd oil refinery overnight on Nov. 6, Russian Telegram media channels reported, as explosions rocked several Russian energy sites.

Western analysts say the attacks on energy infrastructure so far have had a serious — but not crippling — effect. Ukrainian drones have repeatedly hit 16 major Russian refineries, representing about 38% of the country’s nominal refining capacity, according to a recent review by the Carnegie Endowment, a U.S.-based think tank.

North Korea and Russia are strategic allies. The East Asian nation supplied caches of weapons as well as some 15,000 troops, according to South Korean estimates, to aid the Russian war effort against Ukraine. The Koreans mainly fought in Kursk, successfully beating back a Ukrainian invasion of the Russian border region.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Friday rejected allegations of "treason" over plans for several of the far-right party's lawmakers to visit Russia next week. The trip has attracted severe criticism from conservative German politicians due to Russia's war with Ukraine.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has "ordered an investigation into the circumstances that led to the recruitment of these young men into these seemingly mercenary activities," a government spokesman said. The statement did not say which side of the conflict the South Africans were fighting for.

As a result of the Russian strike on Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region on the night of November 7, a Nova Poshta office (Ukrainian postal service) was completely destroyed, according to the Nova Poshta press service.