Ukraine-Russia war live: Some North Koreans ‘already in Ukraine’ as Kyiv drafts 160,000 troops
Number of North Korean soldiers inside Ukraine is expected to grow, officials say
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North Korean troops are reportedly already inside Ukraine.
“It seems that a good many of them are already in action,” a Western intelligence official said, according to CNN, adding that the number of North Korean soldiers inside Ukraine is expected to grow as they complete training in eastern Russia and await deployment on the war frontline.
South Korea and its allies estimated at least 11,000 North Korean soldiers had been moved to Russia with more than 3,000 of them now deployed close to the front lines in Ukraine, a presidential official said on Wednesday.
The US confirmed yesterday that some North Korean soldiers were in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion in August and hold hundreds of square kilometres of territory. A couple of thousand more were heading there, the Pentagon said.
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said the deployment of North Korean troops in the Ukraine conflict has increased the possibility of the war becoming more fierce.
This comes as Ukraine drafted 160,000 more troops in the anticipation of grinding warfare and a frozen battle zone in the upcoming winter – the third such under Russian invasion.
Are North Koreans troops in Ukraine? What we know about Kim Jong-un’s soldiers joining Russia’s war
Finland president calls North Korean troops deployed to Russia an ‘escalation’
Pentagon issues North Korea warning as 10,000 troops set to join Russia’s war in coming weeks
Mapped: Where has Russia made advances on the frontline in Ukraine?
Ukraine destroys 33 Russian drones overnight
Ukrainian air defence units destroyed 33 of the 62 drones that Russia launched overnight, Ukraine’s air forces said today.
Another 25 of the drones were unaccounted for, with some likely to had been intercepted by Ukraine’s electronic warfare measures, the air force said.
It was not immediately clear what happened to the remaining four drones.
Russia says it destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones overnight
Russia’s air defence units destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones overnight over several western Russian regions, the Russian defence ministry said.
Of these, seven Ukrainian drones were destroyed over the Rostov region, five over the Kursk region, four over the Smolensk region and the rest over the Oryol, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, the ministry said
Russian drone attack on Kyiv injures nine
At least nine people were injured, including an 11-year-old girl, and several apartments were on fire after a Russian drone attack on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said this morning.
Falling debris from a destroyed drone sparked a fire in a multi-storey apartment building in the Solomianskyi district in Kyiv’s west, mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
“So far, nine people have been injured,” Mr Klitschko said. “All of them were treated by medics on the spot.”
The military administration of Kyiv posted a photo of flames bursting out of a flat in an apartment building. It also said that another fire broke out in a multi-storey administrative building in the Solomianskyi district.
Reuters witnesses heard a series of explosions in Kyiv in what sounded like air defence units in operation.
Kyiv, its surrounding region and nearly the whole eastern half of Ukraine were under air raid alerts from around 1.30am GMT.
North Korean defectors set to join Ukraine to fight Putin’s invasion – report
Around 200 defectors from North Korea are keen to join Ukraine’s fight against Russia, a new report said.
“We are all military veterans who understand North Korea’s military culture and psychological state better than anyone else,” said a 69-year-old Ahn Chan-il told the South China Morning Post. Several members of the group of defectors all have several years of military experience.
This comes as the Pentagon estimated 10,000 North Korean troops had been deployed to eastern Russia for training, up from an estimate of 3,000 troops last week.
The US has confirmed some North Korean soldiers were in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion in August and hold hundreds of square kilometres of territory.
South Korean officials have said some of the North Korean troops may have been moved to the frontline and expressed worry about what Russia may be providing to Pyongyang in return.
Are North Koreans troops in Ukraine? What we know about Kim Jong-un’s soldiers joining Russia’s war
The Pentagon has said that North Korea dispatched 10,000 troops to Russia, with some of them believed to be heading to the Kursk border to join Vladimir Putin’s forces in their invasion of Ukraine amid the biggest conflict Europe has seen since the Second World War.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said some North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region. The Russian forces are facing difficulty in pushing back Ukraine’s cross-border incursion launched on 6 August.
This came within hours of Nato secretary general Mark Rutte confirming recent Ukrainian intelligence reports of the presence of North Korean military units deployed to Kursk near the Ukrainian border.
Are North Koreans soldiers fighting in Ukraine war? Here’s what we know
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh says North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine and were believed to be heading for Kursk
Chechen leader vows revenge after drone attack
The notorious Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has promised to take revenge for a drone attack that caused a fire at a military training academy in his south Russian region.
Ukraine has frequently struck Russia with drones in the course of the war, but Tuesday’s attack appeared to be the first against Chechnya.
Kadyrov told reporters in a video published by the Russian state news agency RIA: “They’ve bitten us - we will destroy them. In the very near future we’ll show them the kind of vengeance they’ve never even dreamt of.”
Earlier, Kadyrov posted on Telegram that the drone strike had set fire to the roof of what he said was an empty building at the “special forces university” in the city of Gudermes. There were no casualties, he said.
'Good many' of North Korean troops already in action in Ukraine, official says
Two western intelligence officials have said a number of North Korean troops are already inside Ukraine, reported CNN.
“It seems that a good many of them are already in action,” the official said, without elaborating on a number of North Korean forces fighting in Ukraine war.
The officials said they are expecting the number of North Korean soldiers inside Ukraine to grow as they complete training in eastern Russia and await deployment on the war frontline.
The US confirmed yesterday that some North Korean soldiers were in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion in August and hold hundreds of square kilometres of territory.
A couple of thousand more were heading there, the Pentagon said.
Russian drill simulates "massive" response to a nuclear strike
Russia held a training exercise on Tuesday to simulate a “massive nuclear strike” in response to a first strike by an enemy, Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said.
President Vladimir Putin kicked off the exercise at a critical point in the Ukraine war. The drill, which Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said was a regular, planned event, involved the launch of ballistic and cruise missiles.
As part of the exercise, a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia to the Kura test range in Kamchatka in the far east, the defence ministry said.
Sineva and Bulava ballistic missiles were fired from submarines in the Barents and Okhotsk Seas. Tu-95MS strategic bomber planes, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, launched cruise missiles.
All the missiles reached their targets, the defence ministry said.
Trudeau warns over North Korea role in Ukraine war
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau said the deployment of North Korean troops in the Ukraine conflict will likely escalate the war waged by Russia.
His remarks were made on a phone call with South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol’s office yesterday.
The war will leave a greater impact on the security environment of Europe and the Indo-Pacific, Trudeau said, proposing closer cooperation between the two countries on the developing situation, according to Mr Yoon’s office.
“Prime minister Trudeau said that the possibility of the Ukraine war becoming more fierce has increased with the North Korean troops’ deployment to Russia, and this will have an impact on the overall security of Europe and the Indo-Pacific,” the office said.
Mr Yoon said the pace of North Korean troop deployment in the Ukraine conflict had been faster than expected, creating a dangerous situation, his office said.
Vladimir Putin has not denied the involvement of North Korean troops in the war but said it was Russia’s business how it implements a partnership treaty he and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed in June.
Blasts shake Kyiv after Russian drone attack, mayor says
Several explosions shook Kyiv early today and a fire broke out as a result of a Russian drone attack, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said.
“Emergency services are dispatched to the site,” mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
Reuters witnesses heard a series of explosions in what sounded like air defence units in operation.
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