Ukraine’s president has called on allies to stop “monitoring” and take measures before North Korean troops in Russia arrive on the battlefield, but military commanders say Ukrainian forces are in danger of starting a full-scale war. He said the country was facing “one of the most powerful attacks” by Moscow since the United States.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy raised the possibility of a pre-emptive strike by Ukrainian forces on a camp where North Korean troops are training, and said Kiev was aware of their location. But he said Ukraine could not use Western-made long-range weapons to attack targets deep in Russia without allies’ permission.
“But instead… the United States is watching, the United Kingdom is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean army to launch an attack on Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said on the messaging app Telegram late Friday. I mentioned it in a post.
The Biden administration announced Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean soldiers are stationed in Russia’s Kursk region near the Ukrainian border, preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian military intelligence officials said Saturday that more than 7,000 North Koreans equipped with Russian-made equipment and weapons had been transferred to nearby Ukraine. The agency, known by the acronym GUR, said North Korean troops were training at five locations in Russia’s Far East. The source of the information was not disclosed.
Western leaders have called North Korea’s troop dispatch a serious escalation that could shake up relations in the Indo-Pacific region, and a move away from Moscow that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. It states that this will open the door to technology transfer to Korea. .
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Song Hui met with his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday.
Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to attack weapons depots, airfields and military bases far from their borders to incentivize Russia to seek peace. In response, U.S. defense officials argued that the number of missiles was limited and that Ukraine was already using its own long-range drones to attack targets in Russia’s hinterland.
The Russian government has consistently indicated that it would consider such an attack a serious escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would enter a “state of war” if the United States and NATO countries recognized it.
Zelenskiy’s call comes as Ukraine’s top military commander, General Oleksandr Shirushkyi, said on Saturday that the country’s military was fighting off “one of the most powerful attacks” by Russia since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its southern neighbor in February 2022. It took place just before he said he was struggling with it.
After a call with Czech military officials, Silschy wrote in a Telegram article in which he hinted that Ukrainian military units had suffered heavy losses in the fighting, which required “continuous renewal of resources.” .
Although Shirsky did not specify where the heavy fighting took place, Russia has been conducting intense military operations along Ukraine’s eastern front for months, gradually forcing Kiev to surrender. But the Russian government has struggled to dislodge Ukrainian forces from the Kursk border area since the invasion about three months ago.
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Russian missiles struck Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv over Saturday and overnight, killing one police officer and injuring dozens, local governor Ole Sinyevov reported.
Russian artillery fire killed a 40-year-old woman and injured three others, including two children, in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast on Saturday, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Another Kherson resident was also injured in a drone attack later that day, according to local Ukrainian authorities.
Russian forces have attacked the Dnipropetrovsk region in central Ukraine, injuring five more civilians, including two children, Governor Serhiy Lysak announced.
Air raid sirens blared in Kiev for more than five hours early Saturday as Russian drones attacked the capital, and two people were injured in a fire in a downtown business district, the city’s junta said.
In all, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones during the night, the Ukrainian Air Force announced on Saturday. Most were shot down or forced off course using GPS jamming. Falling debris damaged power grids and residential buildings in several provinces and injured an elderly woman near Kiev, officials said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that Russian forces shot down 24 Ukrainian drones over four Russian regions during the night and captured Crimea. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
