Ukraine-Russia war latest: Blasts heard in Kyiv as Seoul says more than 10,000 North Koreans now in Russia
Significant number of North Korean troops headed to the frontline areas, including Kursk, says Seoul
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Your support makes all the difference.Ukraine is repelling a second wave of overnight attacks on Kyiv by Russia as air defence units downed incoming drones, mayor Vitali Klitschko said this morning.
Blasts were heard in the capital as the Pentagon and South Korea both said their intelligence shows more than 10,000 North Korea soldiers have now arrived in Russia to support Vladimir Putin’s invasion.
A significant number of North Korean troops are headed to frontline areas, including Kursk, South Korea’s defence ministry spokesperson Jeon Ha-kyou said today.
The Pentagon said that there were at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers in Kursk, near the Ukraine border, but could not corroborate reports that they were engaged in combat.
Russia is handing out military kits to North Korean soldiers, including Russian uniforms, the Pentagon said, indicating these soldiers are expected to fight on the frontline.
Kyiv said yesterday that its forces had struck North Korean troops for the first time since they entered the war on Russia’s side.
US sanctions 398 firms in more than a dozen countries, accusing them of helping Russia's war effort
The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 398 firms across Russia, India, China, and more than a dozen other nations — accusing them of providing products and services that enable Russia’s war effort and aid its ability to evade sanctions.
The effort spearheaded by the Treasury and State Departments is aimed at punishing “third party countries” that are accused of providing material assistance to the Kremlin or assisting Russia in evading the thousands of sanctions that have been imposed on the country since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Among those sanctioned by the Treasury Department are 274 companies accused of supplying Russia with advanced technology, as well as Russia-based defense and manufacturing firms that produce or finish military products that maintain the weaponry used against Ukraine.
US sanctions 398 firms in more than a dozen countries, accusing them of helping Russia's war effort
The U.S. on Wednesday imposed sanctions on 398 firms across Russia, India, China, and more than a dozen other nations — accusing them of providing products and services that enable Russia’s war effort and aid its ability to evade sanctions
Zelensky voices solidarity with Moldova’s Sandu after her election win
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Moldova's Maia Sandu on her presidential election victory and reaffirmed Kyiv's commitment to jointly work on a common goal towards European Union membership.
Sandu, the pro-Western incumbent who has accelerated Moldova's push to leave Moscow's orbit, claimed victory in Sunday's closely-fought runoff, defeating Alexandr Stoianoglo, who was backed by the traditionally pro-Russian Socialist Party.
"On behalf of the Ukrainian people I expressed our solidarity with the European choice of the Moldovan people," Zelenskiy said on the social media platform X following a phone conversation with Sandu.
Zelenskiy said he had coordinated the "next steps" on the EU accession path with Sandu.
US conducts long-range bomber exercise with South Korea and Japan
The United States flew a long-range bomber in a trilateral drill with South Korea and Japan on Sunday in response to North Korea’s recent test-firing of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the US mainland, South Korea’s military said.
North Korea on Thursday tested the newly developed Hwasong-19 ICBM, which flew higher and stayed in the air longer than any other missile it has fired. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called it “an appropriate military action” to cope with external security threats posed by its rivals.
It comes as North Korean troops fight on the Ukrainian front line.
US conducts long-range bomber exercise with South Korea and Japan
South Korea says the US has flown a long-range bomber in a trilateral drill with South Korea and Japan in response to North Korea’s recent test-firing of a new intercontinental ballistic missile designed to strike the US mainland
Zelensky urges allies to take steps before North Korean troops reach the front
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky urged its allies to stop “watching” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield.
Mr Zelensky raised the prospect of a preemptive Ukrainian strike on camps where the North Korean troops are being trained, and said Kyiv knows their location. But he said Ukraine can’t do it without permission from allies to use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia.
“But instead … America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” Mr Zelensky said.
Ukraine, Germany discuss need for 'decisive response' to N. Korean involvement in war
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he had discussed the “need for decisive action” in response to North Korean involvement in the war in Ukraine with his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock.
“We urge Europe to realize that the DPRK troops are now carrying an aggressive war in Europe against a sovereign European state,” he told a briefing after meeting with Baerbock in Kyiv.
The United States says North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia and is poised to join the war in Ukraine on Moscow’s side. Russia has neither confirmed nor denied their presence.
Army chief says Ukraine facing ‘one of the most powerful’ Russian offensives
Ukraine is currently facing “one of the most powerful Russian offensives” since the beginning of the war in February 2022, its army chief has warned.
Russia has been steadily making gains in the Donbas region and capturing villages amid reports that North Korea has deployed about 10,000 troops to join Vladimir Putin’s war.
Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, said the situation on the front line “remains difficult” and certain areas “require constant renewal of resources of Ukrainian units”.
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are holding back one of the most powerful Russian offensives from launching a full-scale invasion,” the top commander said over the weekend.
The war is entering what Russian analysts say is its most dangerous phase as Moscow’s forces advance, North Korea sends troops to Russia and the West ponders how the conflict will end.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has been traveling the world lobbying Nato countries to allow Kyiv the use of the long-range missiles they have provided to strike targets deep inside Russia.
In pics: Russia bombs Ukraine’s capital and Kharkiv
Russia sentences former US consulate worker to nearly 5 years in prison
A court in Russia's far-eastern city of Vladivostok on Friday convicted a former U.S. Consulate worker charged with cooperating with a foreign state and sentenced him to four years and 10 months in prison.
Robert Shonov, a Russian citizen and former employee of the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok, was arrested in May 2023. Russia's top domestic security agency, the FSB, accused him of “gathering information about the special military operation" in Ukraine, a partial call-up in Russian regions and its influence on "protest activities of the population in the runup to the 2024 presidential election.”
The U.S. State Department last year condemned the arrest and said the allegations against Shonov “are wholly without merit.”
US is sending $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine
The Biden administration announced Friday it was sending an additional $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to face Russian forces augmented by more than 10,000 North Korean troops.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had said more aid was coming, and soon, during his visit to Kyiv last week. This aid package includes weapons that will be pulled from existing U.S. stockpiles, including air defense interceptors for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and 155 mm artillery, and armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons.
US is sending $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine
The Biden administration is sending an additional $425 million in military assistance to Ukraine as Kyiv prepares to face Russian forces augmented by more than 10,000 North Koreans troops
Putin hosts North Korean foreign minister on Russia's 'unity day'
Russian President Vladimir Putin met North Korea’s foreign minister in the Kremlin on Monday at a time of mounting concern in the West that North Korean soldiers are about to enter the Ukraine war on Moscow’s side.
Video of the meeting showed the pair shaking hands for a full minute as Putin greeted Choe Son Hui. Putin noted that they were meeting on Russia’s National Unity Day, a public holiday, and Choe conveyed “sincere, warm, comradely greetings” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The United States says North Korea has sent some 10,000 troops to Russia, including 8,000 to the western Kursk region where Russia is still battling to expel Ukrainian troops who broke across the border in August.
Putin, who signed a treaty with Kim in June that includes a mutual defence clause, has neither confirmed nor denied the North Korean troop presence. He has said that Russia is free to implement the pact as it sees fit.
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