In Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his allies to stop “watching” and take steps forward North Korean soldiers planted in Russia to reach the war.
Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a first Ukrainian strike on North Korean military training camps and said Kyiv knows its territory. But he said that Ukraine will not do it without permission from the allies to use long-range weapons made in the West to hit targets inside Russia.
“But instead … America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is waiting for the North Korean military to start attacking the Ukrainian people,” Zelenskyy said in a post on Friday via the Telegram messaging app.
Biden’s administration said Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean soldiers they are now in the Russian region of Kursk near the Ukrainian border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight Ukrainian forces in the coming days.
On Saturday, Ukrainian military intelligence said more than 7,000 North Koreans armed with Russian weapons and ammunition had been moved to areas near Ukraine. The agency, abbreviated as GUR, said North Korean troops are being trained at five locations in Russia’s Far East. It did not specify its source of information.
Western leaders have described North Korea’s military deployment as a major escalation that could strain relations in the Indo-Pacific region, and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could fuel the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program. .
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday.
Oleg Petrasiuk/Ukrainian 24th Mechanized Brigade via AP
Ukraine’s leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to strike weapons depots, airfields and military bases across the border to encourage Russia to seek peace. In response, US defense officials have argued that the missiles are limited in number and that Ukraine is already using its own fighter jet to strike at Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly said it will consider any such strikes a major escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would be “at war” with the US and NATO states if they sanctioned them.
Russian missiles hit Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, on Saturday night, killing a policeman and injuring dozens, Gov. By Syniehubov. According to Syniehubov and the national police force in Ukraine, another missile hit the area where a group of policemen had gathered, killing a 40-year-old worker and injuring 36 others.
In the southern Ukrainian province of Kherson, Russian shooting on Saturday killed a 40-year-old woman and injured three others, including two children, reported Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.
In Kyiv, air raid sirens sounded for more than five hours early Saturday morning as Russian jets rained down on the capital, setting fire to offices and injuring two people, according to the city’s military commanders.
In total, the Russian military attacked Ukraine overnight with more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed fighter jets, the Ukrainian military reported on Saturday. It said most were shot down or sent out using GPS jamming. Falling debris knocked out power and residential buildings in several provinces and injured an elderly woman near Kyiv, officials said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Russia’s drone campaign was slowing, saying Moscow launched more than half as many in October as the previous month.
Source link
