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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Human wave of North Korea troops ‘sent to death’ amid music speaker bomb plot claim

South Korea, Ukraine and the US previously accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia

Arpan Rai,Jabed Ahmed,Tom Watling
Saturday 28 December 2024 09:21 GMT
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US officials have claimed that North Korea is suffering mass casualties on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine, being used in costly “human wave” attacks.

White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that thousands of North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in the last week alone.

“It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby said.

South Korea, Ukraine and the US previously accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia fight off the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk border region.

It comes as Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had foiled a plot by Ukraine to kill a high-ranking Russian officer and a pro-Russian war blogger with a bomb hidden in a portable music speaker.

On the instructions of the Ukrainian intelligence officer, a Russian citizen had retrieved a bomb from a hiding place in Moscow, the FSB said. The bomb, equivalent to 1 1/2 kg of TNT and packed with ball bearings, was concealed in a portable music speaker, the FSB said.

Romanian radar detects likely drone breaching territory, ministry says

Romania’s radar systems detected a small flying object, likely a drone, breaching national airspace up to 6 km inland in the southeastern county of Tulcea, the defence ministry said.

The European Union and NATO state, which shares a 650 km (400 mile) border with Ukraine, has had Russian drone fragments fall on its territory repeatedly over the past year and a half as Moscow attacks Ukrainian port infrastructure.

The ministry said the radar first picked up the signal at 1904 GMT, 15 km east of Chilia Veche in Tulcea County.

It alerted the population of the county to take cover and began procedures to scramble fighter jets, but the radar lost the signal at 1909 GMT.

“There is no information about a possible target impact on national territory,” the ministry said.

Jabed Ahmed27 December 2024 10:01

Ukraine's air defence downs 13 out of 24 Russian drones, military says

Ukrainian air defence shot down 13 out of 24 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack, the air force has said.

The air force said the other 11 Russian drones were "lost" without causing damage. Military analysts said that Ukraine has increasingly been using electronic warfare to redirect or spoof Russian drones.

Jabed Ahmed27 December 2024 09:16

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