North Korean leader Kim Jong Un expects to meet with President Vladimir Putin in Russia to discuss providing arms to Moscow for its war in Ukraine, the United States said Monday, September 4. The announcement comes after the White House last week warned that Russia was already in secret, active talks with the North to acquire a range of munitions and supplies for Moscow's war effort.

"As we have warned publicly, arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing," National Security Council (NSC) spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said, using an acronym for the North. "We have information that Kim Jong Un expects these discussions to continue, to include leader-level diplomatic engagement in Russia."

Kim – who rarely travels outside his country – is likely to head later this month to Vladivostok, on Russia's Pacific coast not far from North Korea, to meet with Putin, according to The New York Times. The paper said Kim could even travel to Moscow, but that was uncertain. NSC spokesman John Kirby said last week that despite its denials, North Korea supplied infantry rockets and missiles to Russia in 2022 for use by the privately controlled Wagner military group.

Meanwhile, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu traveled last month to North Korea seeking to acquire additional munitions for the war, Watson added. "We urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia," Watson said.

Last week at the United Nations, the United States, Britain, South Korea and Japan said in a joint statement that any deal to increase bilateral cooperation between Russia and North Korea would violate Security Council resolutions forbidding arms deals with Pyongyang – resolutions that Moscow itself had endorsed. They said that following Shoigu's visit to Pyongyang, another group of Russian officials traveled to North Korea for follow-up talks on arms purchases.

Any talks between Kim and Putin would come as Ukraine carries out a highly scrutinized counteroffensive in the south and east of the country, which Putin on Monday claimed was unsuccessful. "It is not that it is stalling. It is a failure," Putin said Monday. "At least today this is what it looks like. Let's see what happens next."

Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on Monday announced he had handed in his resignation to parliament after President Volodymyr Zelensky called for "new approaches" to face Russia's offensive.

Meanwhile, drone attacks on several locations in Russia continued overnight Thursday to Friday.

Unconfirmed reports say a factory making electronic parts for rockets in the town of Lyubertsy outside Moscow was hit.

However, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in his Telegram channel that the drones over Lyubertsy were shot down without causing any damage or casualties.

As with previous attacks in the Moscow area, a number of flights from Moscow airports were delayed or cancelled on Friday morning.

Kursk region governor Roman Starovoyt said one residential and one administrative building had been hit in the town of Kurchatov, close to the Kursk nuclear plant.

Ukraine is continuing its counter-offensive into Russian-occupied territory.

The Institute for the Study of War said on Thursday that advances were made near Bakhmut in the east, as well as in the west of Zaporizhzhia region.

US White House spokesman John Kirby said "notable progress" had been made by Ukrainian forces in Zaporizhzhia in the last 72 hours.

Objective observers of the counter-offensive "can't deny" this progress, he said, adding that criticism of the slowness of the Ukrainian advance by anonymous officials was "not helpful".

Kyiv said earlier this week it had captured the settlement of Robotyne, which officials believe will lead to further progress to the south.