Ukraine-Russia latest: North Korea soldiers in Russia targeted by Ukrainian fire for first time, Kyiv says
US says North Korea has deployed 10,000 troops in Russia, with more than half of them in the Kursk region
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Your support makes all the difference.North Korean troops have been hit by Ukraine’s army for the first time since they entered the war on Russia’s side, Kyiv has said.
Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine’s national security council, reported that the incident took place in Russia’s western Kursk region. Ukrainian forces have held parts of this area since their unexpected cross-border operation in August.
“The initial North Korean troops have already encountered fire in the Kursk region,” Kovalenko said, though he did not provide additional details.
His remarks are likely to heighten concerns that North Korea’s involvement could draw other nations into the conflict, which has already become Europe’s largest war since 1945.
Pyongyang has vowed to back Russia until it achieves victory over Ukraine. “Our traditional, historically friendly relations, which have traveled the tested path of history, today ... are rising to a new level of relations of invincible military comradeship,” the North’s foreign minister Choe Son Hui said during her trip to Moscow last week.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken confirmed there are 10,000 North Koreans already in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region.
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Senior officer killed and 40 injured in Kharkiv missile strike
A senior police officer was killed and at least 40 others were injured after a Russian missile strike on Kharkiv, Ukraine‘s second largest city, the prosecutor general’s office said.
At least 30 police officers, nine civilians and a rescue worker were among the injured in the targeted strike at a police station in the late afternoon attack, the office said on the Telegram messaging app.
Police said S-400 missiles had been deployed by Russian forces and showed pictures of rescue workers sifting through mounds of rubble with the help of floodlights.
Oleh Syniehubov, governor of Kharkiv region in Ukraine’s northeast, said some injured officers were in serious condition. He said an attack on the city earlier in the day had damaged a multi-storey apartment bloc and several private houses.
A Russian guided bomb struck a multi-storey residence on Wednesday in Kharkiv, killing three people.
Syniehubov also said a Russian guided bomb had struck a five-storey apartment building in the city of Kupiansk, further east, injuring two people.
Further west, in the city of Sumy, prosecutors said a drone attack on a multi-storey apartment building injured five.
Kharkiv remained in Ukrainian hands throughout the initial unsuccessful advance by Russian forces on the capital, Kyiv, after their February 2022 invasion. The city has since remained a frequent target of Russian air strikes.
Kremlin says it has nothing more to say about Western assertions on North Korean troops
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said he had “nothing to add to what has already been said” about Western statements that North Korea has sent thousands of troops to Russia to help in its war against Ukraine.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Thursday that Pyongyang had 10,000 troops in Russia, including 8,000 in its western Kursk region that he said were expected to go into combat against Ukraine in the coming days.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean soldiers on its territory.
North Koreans training in ‘basic infantry operations’ in Ukraine, says Blinken
Russia has been training North Korean soldiers in artillery, drones and “basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, indicating that they fully intend to use these forces in front line operations,” US secretary of state Antony Blinken said.
North Korea’s efforts to tighten its relationship with Russia has raised concerns around the world about how that may expand the war in Ukraine and what Russian military aid will be delivered in exchange.
It’s become a key topic as US and South Korean leaders met this week in Washington, fuelling concerns that the presence of those soldiers will further destabilise the Asia-Pacific region and broaden Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
South Korea considering all options for aiding Ukraine
South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae-yul said all possible scenarios were under consideration over the possibility of Seoul sending weapons to Ukraine in response to North Korea’s aiding Russia.
Mr Cho, speaking through an interpreter, told a press conference in Ottawa that Seoul would be watching the level of participation by North Korean troops in Russia and what Pyongyang received from Moscow in return.
The United States said on Thursday that it expected North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days. Washington says there are 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia.
South Korea has provided non-lethal aid to Ukraine, including mine clearance equipment, but so far has resisted Kyiv’s requests for weapons.
“All possible scenarios are under consideration,” Mr Cho said when asked whether Seoul might send arms to Ukraine.
“Specifically, we will be watching the level of the (North Korean) forces’ participation in the war, and what will be the quid pro quo that North Korea will be receiving from Russia. We will take all those (factors) into consideration before making specific decisions,” he said.
Russia says it is unhappy with Turkish arms supplies to Ukraine
Russia is “surprised” that Turkey continues to supply Ukraine with weapons while trying to act as a mediator in the conflict between the two countries, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the Hurriyet newspaper.
“Turkish weapons are used by the Ukrainian armed forces to kill Russian military personnel and civilians,” Mr Lavrov said in an interview.
“This situation cannot but cause surprise, given the Turkish government’s statements that it is ready to provide mediation services,” he said.
Ukraine’s Zelensky calls on Western allies to stop watching and start acting on North Korea
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called on Ukraine’s allies to stop “watching” and take action over the presence of North Korean troops in Russia before they start confronting his country in combat.
Mr Zelensky, in a video posted on Telegram, said North Korea had made progress in its military capability, missile deployment and weapons production and “now unfortunately they will learn modern warfare”.
“The first thousands of soldiers from North Korea are near the Ukrainian border. Ukrainians will be forced to defend themselves against them,” he said. “And the world will watch again.”
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine had pinpointed every location where North Korean soldiers were posted in Russia. But Kyiv’s Western allies, he said, had not supplied the long-range weapons needed to strike them.
“But instead of such necessary long-range capability, America watches, Britain watches, Germany watches...,” he said.
“Everyone in the world who truly wants the Russian war against Ukraine not to expand....must not just watch. They must act. Words about the inadmissibility of escalation and expansion of war must be matched with actions.”
The slick three-minute video interspersed his comments with images of North Korea’s soldiers and missile launches as well as images of the war and the United Nations.
The video follows an interview with South Korea’s KBS television on Thursday in which Mr Zelensky blasted what he described as his allies’ “zero” response to Russia’s deployment of North Korean troops.
South Korea ‘planning to send personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops’
South Korea is reportedly planning to send personnel to Ukraine to monitor North Korean troops, amid reports that Pyongyang has deployed some 10,000 soldiers to Russia.
South Korean newspaper Hankyoreh cited a senior presidential office official as saying on Wednesday that South Korea has a “legitimate need” to analyse North Korean military activities in the war in Ukraine and “feels the need” to establish a team to monitor North Korean troops and the battlefield situation.
Last week, South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted a government source as saying that South Korea was considering sending South Korean military personnel, likely from intelligence units, to Ukraine to monitor North Korean forces’ tactics and combat capabilities and to question captured North Koreans.
North Korea says it will back Russia until it ‘achieves a great victory’ in Ukraine
The North Korean foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, arrived in Russia on Friday and vowed to back Moscow in its war against Ukraine until it “achieves a great victory”.
In talks with Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, she said North Korea had no doubt that Russia will succeed in Ukraine under Vladimir Putin’s “wise leadership”.
Russia will “achieve a great victory in their sacred struggle to protect the sovereign rights and security interests”, she said.
Mr Lavrov acknowledged “very close contacts” have been established between Russian and North Korean militaries.
He said Moscow was “deeply grateful to our Korean friends for their principled position regarding the events that have now unfolded in Ukraine”.
He added that their ties “have reached an unprecedented high level over the past few years,” and proposed discussing the implementation of the strategic partnership agreement the two nations signed earlier this year.
Moscow accuses Kyiv of sabotaging POW exchange
Russia has claimed that Ukraine essentially sabotaged the process of exchanging prisoners of war.
Russia’s defence ministry offered Kyiv over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war but Ukraine only took 279, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed.
Ukraine did not immediately comment.
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