By The Independent (World News) | Created at 2024-10-24 04:10:30 | Updated at 2024-10-24 06:16:11
2 hours ago
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
There’s evidence North Korea has dispatched troops to Russia in a potential escalation of Vladimir Putin’s invasion, American and South Korean officials have said.
This marks the first time a third country has put boots on the ground in the war if the soldiers fight alongside Russia in Ukraine.
South Korea’s spy chief told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops were being trained to use equipment including drones before being sent to fight in Ukraine. Lloyd Austin, US defence secretary, said "we are seeing evidence that there are North Korean troops" who have gone to Russia.
It would be “very, very serious” if they are preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged.
In Kyiv, the foreign ministry said the Brics summit has backfired on Moscow as Russian officials have failed to win support for its invasion of Ukraine as Putin faced direct calls to end the war.
“The Brics summit, which Russia planned to use to split the world, has once again demonstrated that the world majority remains on the side of Ukraine in its quest to guarantee a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace,” the ministry said.
Kyiv says Brics summit backfired on Moscow
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said the Brics summit has backfired on Moscow as Russian officials have failed to win support for its invasion of Ukraine as Putin faced direct calls to end the war.
“The Brics summit, which Russia planned to use to split the world, has once again demonstrated that the world majority remains on the side of Ukraine in its quest to guarantee a comprehensive, just and sustainable peace,” the ministry said.
Arpan Rai24 October 2024 05:04
Ukraine's 'I Want to Live' project calls on North Korean soldiers to surrender
Ukraine is preparing as though combating North Korea in its territory is inevitable.
American and South Korean officials confirmed that there’s evidence North Korea has dispatched troops to Russia in a potential escalation of war with Ukraine.
An injection of 10,000 North Korean troops, which is what both Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence have claimed, “could significantly destabilise Ukraine’s defence there and greatly accelerate the advancement of Russian forces,” said Glib Voloskyi, an analyst from a Ukrainian think tank, Come Back Alive Initiatives Center.
Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” project, a hotline encouraging Russian soldiers to surrender, published a video in Korean calling for North Korean soldiers to give up.“We call for the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army, who were sent to help the Putin regime. You should not die senselessly on someone else’s land. There is no need to repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home!”
Arpan Rai24 October 2024 04:41
What we know about the North Korean troops in Ukraine
North Korean troops were arriving in Russia’s Kursk region as early as yesterday to help Russian troops fight off a Ukrainian border incursion, Ukraine military intelligence directorate head Kyrylo Budanov told the online military news outlet The War Zone.
Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters North Korean officers and technical personnel have already been spotted in Russian-occupied territories. He did not specify when.“I believe they sent officers first to assess the situation before deploying troops,” Mr Zelensky said.
He has cautioned that the participation of a third country could escalate the conflict into a world war. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said that it would be a “very, very serious issue” if Pyongyang indeed did join the war on Russia’s side.
“What exactly they’re doing — left to be seen,” Mr Austin said. Neither Mr Austin nor South Korean National Intelligence Service director Cho Tae-yong provided details about how they knew about the North Korean troops, and many questions surround the impact of North Korean participation.
Arpan Rai24 October 2024 04:24
Foreign troops would escalate Ukraine conflict, says Belarusian president
Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, one of Vladimir Putin’s closest allies, said deploying any foreign forces in the Ukraine conflict would inevitably lead to an escalation.
The comments came as the US said for the first time it had seen evidence of North Korean troops in Russia and South Korean lawmakers said about 3,000 soldiers had been sent.
Mr Lukashenko dismissed the notion that North Korea had dispatched troops to be deployed alongside Russian forces in the more than two-and-a-half year old war in Ukraine.
“Rubbish,” Lukashenko told the BBC on the sidelines of the summit of the Brics grouping of nations. “Knowing his character Putin would never try to persuade another country to involve its army in Russia’s special operation in Ukraine.”
Deploying foreign troops, he said, “would be a step towards the escalation of the conflict if the armed forces of any country, even Belarus, were on the contact line.”
And that would prompt Ukraine’s allies to point to foreign involvement “so Nato troops would be deployed to Ukraine.”
Arpan Rai24 October 2024 04:01
Russia claims Ukraine in Nato is not an option that can be discussed
Inviting Ukraine to join Nato can not and will not be a matter for discussion in talks with Russia, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
She urged the West to stop supplying weapon to Kyiv, claiming that a stoppage would end the war.
Andy Gregory24 October 2024 04:00
Russian forces capture two villages in Ukraine’s Donetsk
Russian forces captured the villages of Serebrianka and Mykolaivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Defence Ministry said yesterday, as military blogs reported advances of Moscow’s troops near key frontline towns.
Ukraine’s military made no acknowledgement of either village falling into Russian hands, but said both areas of the front were gripped by intense fighting.
Bloggers on both sides reported an intense Russian drive on the town of Selydove.
The Ukrainian General Staff said its forces had repelled all 12 Russian attacks undertaken in an area around Serebrianka just inside the northern border of Donetsk region.
It said heavy fighting gripped towns on the approach to Pokrovsk, the next key logistical town in the Russian military’s steady push westward in Donetsk region.
The popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Ukrainian troops were facing overwhelming odds defending Selydove – which lies southwest of Mykolaivka. Capturing Selydove would pave the way for a Russian advance on Pokrovsk.
DeepState said Russian forces with “the advantage of endless resources of infantry and equipment” were putting pressure on Ukrainian defences and advancing from both north and south.
Arpan Rai24 October 2024 03:54
Ukraine video claims to show North Korean soldiers lining up to collect Russia military gear
Andy Gregory24 October 2024 03:00
Nato actively discussing North Korean troops’ deployment to Russia
Nato allies are actively discussing the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia, a Nato spokesperson has said.
“Allies have confirmed evidence of a DPRK troop deployment to Russia”, spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah said, without specifying which allies.
“We are actively consulting within the Alliance on this matter, and the North Atlantic Council will receive a briefing from [South Korea] and further discuss this matter soon.”
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier on Wednesday there is evidence that North Korean troops are in Russia but that it remained to be seen what they would be doing there.
Andy Gregory24 October 2024 02:00
BRICS summit shows organisation has no unified position on Ukraine war, Kyiv says
Ukraine’s foreign ministry has said that the BRICS summit declaration demonstrated that the organisation had no unified position on the war in Ukraine.
“Moscow’s attempts to impose an idea of an alleged alternative position of the so-called Global South regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine have failed again,” the ministry said in a statement.
“The declaration demonstrated that the BRICS as an association does not have a joint position on Russian aggression against Ukraine,” it added.
BRICS leaders including China's Xi Jinping, India's Narendra Modi and Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for a ceasefire in Gaza and made positive noises about a non-Western payment system but mentioned Ukraine just once in their final communique.
While the 43-page document called for a ceasefire in Gaza and ranged from geopolitics to the preservation of big cats, it mentioned Ukraine just once.
“We recall national positions concerning the situation in and around Ukraine as expressed in the appropriate fora,” the communique said. “We note with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices, aimed at a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.
Andy Gregory24 October 2024 01:00
Putin scores a BRICS win with rare Xi and Modi show of harmony
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian premier Narendra Modi used a BRICS summit in Russia on Wednesday to showcase ambitions for a more harmonious relationship between the world’s two most populous countries after years of animosity.
The meeting between Xi and Modi, who have not held formal talks for five years, was one highlight of a summit which Vladimir Putin sought to use to show that the West had failed to isolate Russia over the Ukraine war.
A final communique listed a number of projects aimed at facilitating trade between BRICS nations – including an alternative payment system to the dollar – but did not include details or timelines.
Just two days after New Delhi announced that it had reached a deal with Beijing to resolve a four-year military stand-off on their disputed Himalayan frontier, Xi told Modi that they should enhance communication and cooperation and effectively manage differences.
“It is in the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples for China and India to correctly grasp the trend of history and the direction of development of their relations,” Xi said, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
Reuters24 October 2024 00:01
