Zelensky accuses North Korea of ​​sending soldiers to the Russian army | War in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that North Korea is providing soldiers to the Russian army to carry out its invasion of Ukraine, in addition to delivering ammunition.

We see a growing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea. It is no longer just about the transfer of weapons: it is about sending people from North Korea into the armed forces of the occupierMr. Zelensky said in his daily allowance.

Under these conditions, our relationships with our partners must be developed. The front needs more support.

According to him, kyiv needs long-range weapons to increase pressure on the attacker and for prevent wider war.

For weeks, Ukraine has been asking its Western allies to provide it with long-range missiles to strike Russia in depth.

On Thursday, the Kremlin denied the information coming from kyiv and Seoul indicated that North Korean soldiers are lending a hand in Ukraine to the Russian army, which receives ammunition and missiles from Pyongyang, according to the West.

Ties between Moscow and Pyongyang strengthen

Nuclear-armed North Korea has strengthened its military ties with Moscow in recent months and Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June to sign a mutual defense agreement with the North’s leader. Korean, Kim Jong-un.

A Ukrainian media outlet claimed last weekend that six North Korean officers died in a Ukrainian missile attack days earlier near Donetsk, in Moscow-occupied eastern Ukraine.

Andriï Kovalenko, an official of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, had clarified on Telegram that the North Korean soldiers engaged in Ukraine were limited to a small number of engineering troops.

Ces forces monitor ammunition usage [nord-coréennes] by the Russian armyhe added, affirming that Russia is increasingly dependent on ammunition from North Korea for different types of weapons.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, for his part, declared on Tuesday that Seoul considered very likely that there were casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraineeven saying he expected other troops to be sent to reinforce the Russians.

Ukrainian army hold on in Kursk, says Zelensky

M. Zelensky said on Saturday that Kiev hold on against Moscow’s attempt to push back Ukrainian positions in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine has held entire swaths of territory since August.

Regarding the Kursk operation, Russia has tried to push back our positions, but we are holding on.

Around 150,000 civilians have fled fighting and shelling in the Kursk region in two months, according to Russian authorities.

At the start of the week, Moscow claimed to have recaptured two villages in this sector and pledged to continue its actions to push Ukrainian forces out of its territory.

Ukraine hoped in particular to create a buffer zone near the border to limit Russian bombings on Ukrainian border communities while forcing Russia to redeploy its offensive units near Donetsk and thus slow down their advances.

New Russian claim to the east

However, Russian soldiers still continue to advance in eastern Ukraine, near the strategic city of Pokrovsk, a region where its forces have been advancing rapidly for several weeks.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed to have captured the village of Mykhaïlivka, on the outskirts of Selydové. This last town south of Pokrovsk was badly damaged by months of Russian bombing and the majority of its inhabitants fled.

Pokrovsk, which had a population of 60,000 before the Russian offensive, is a key logistics hub for the Ukrainian army and is home to the only Ukrainian-controlled mine producing coke, a coal needed to make steel.

Its loss would halve the production of this metal, essential to the military industry and expensive to import.

The Ukrainian president indicated on Saturday evening that the situation of Ukrainian forces in the east of the Donetsk region, where Pokrovsk is located, and in the south of Zaporizhia is very difficult.

According to kyiv, Russian attacks killed two people on Saturday, a 19-year-old in a civilian car and an 84-year-old pensioner, east of Donetsk.