Pyongyang continues to assist Russia in its efforts to repel the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the Kursk region, which began last August. According to the Financial Times, artillery systems and missile launchers have been delivered by North Korea in recent years.
In Germany, opponents of Vladimir Putin will organize their first demonstration abroad against the invasion of Ukraine. The movement was notably weakened in February by the death of Alexeï Navalny, who died in murky circumstances in prison.
We take stock of the events that have marked recent hours.
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New North Korean arms deliveries
North Korea has delivered artillery systems and missile launchers to Russia in recent weeks, some of which have been deployed in the Kursk region, according to a Ukrainian intelligence note consulted by the Financial Times.
In detail, the intelligence claims that North Korea provided “fifty M1989 “Koksan” 170 mm self-propelled howitzers” as well as “20 240mm multiple launch rocket systems”.
According to kyiv, some 11,000 North Korean soldiers are already deployed in Russia and have started fighting against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region, where the latter have been on the offensive since August.
A vast thermobaric bomb manufacturing operation in Russia
According to an investigation by the American agency Associated Press, a “secret factory” located in the Alabuga special economic zone, 1,000 km east of Moscow, recently began producing “thermobaric warheads”. In this complex, “hundreds of decoy drones intended to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses” are also manufactured, as part of an operation called “False Target”.
The thermobaric bomb is considered one of the most destructive conventional weapons that can be used in conflict. She creates “a whirlwind of high pressure and heat that can pass through thick walls”, writes Associated Press. These warheads have “a fearsome reputation due to injuries inflicted even outside the site of the initial explosion: burst lungs, crushed eyeballs, brain damage.”
Read also: What is the thermobaric bomb, this terrifying weapon held by the Russians?
The Russian opposition organizes its first major demonstration in Berlin on Sunday
The Russian opposition, exiled because of repression and weakened by internal conflicts, is organizing its first major demonstration abroad on Sunday in Berlin against the invasion of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin.
The opposition, which lost its figurehead, Alexeï Navalny, in February, who died in murky circumstances in prison, is deprived of the means to act in Russia and therefore forced to relaunch the movement from abroad. The march in Berlin, a city which hosts crowds of exiles and Russian opponents, will take place from 1 p.m. in the center of the German capital and plans to end in front of the Russian embassy.
“The march aims to bring together all those who oppose Vladimir Putin's aggressive war in Ukraine and political repressions in Russia,” the organizers said in a press release.
The event will above all be a test for the Russian opposition, as the movement has been weakened by years of repression, the death of Alexeï Navalny and several recent serious internal struggles.
The Kremlin has already dismissed this initiative as insignificant. His spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, mocked opponents on Wednesday “monstrously detached from their country” and of which “opinion doesn’t matter.”
