War in Ukraine: North Korean soldiers “soon” in combat, Zelensky asks for help from allies in the face of Russian missile… update on the situation

North Korean soldiers stationed in Russia will 'soon' fight Ukrainian army, Pentagon chief says

The United States anticipates that the thousands of North Korean troops stationed in Russia will “Soon” fight Ukrainian forces, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said Saturday.

The US Defense Secretary estimates that some 10,000 members of the North Korean army are in Russia's Kursk region, bordering Ukraine and partly occupied by kyiv's forces, and are there “integrated into Russian formations”.

“Based on what (the North Korean soldiers) have been trained to do, the way in which they have been integrated into Russian formations, I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” Lloyd Austin told reporters from the Fiji Islands, where he is visiting.

Lloyd Austin said he did not “did not see any significant information” reporting North Korean soldiers “actively engaged in combat” to this day.

South Korean government officials and a research organization said this week that Moscow was providing fuel, anti-aircraft missiles and economic aid to Pyongyang in exchange for troops – which Seoul and Washington accuse North Korea of ​​sending. .

kyiv warned that Russia had assembled some 50,000 soldiers, including several thousand North Korean soldiers, to regain control of areas of the Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army which launched an offensive there in early August.

Ukraine demands new systems to protect against Putin's missiles

Ukraine is asking its Western allies for the latest generation of air defense systems to protect itself after the strike of a hypersonic ballistic missile, which Vladimir Putin ordered on Friday to be mass-produced, promising new shots against Moscow's enemies.

Russia said it had struck the city of Dnipro, in Ukraine, on Thursday with this new intermediate-range Orechnik missile (up to 5,500 km), a heavy missile with a strategic vocation but without its nuclear charge and which was fired from the region of Astrakhan (southwest Russia) – a first in this war – cast a chill over Europe.

“The Ukrainian Defense Minister is already in discussions with our partners on new air defense systems – precisely the kind of systems that can protect lives in the face of new risks”declared Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video message to his fellow citizens published Friday evening on social networks.

Ukraine is notably equipped with American Patriot systems – with which it claims to have already intercepted several Kinjal hypersonic missiles touted as “invincible” by the Kremlin – and their Franco-Italian equivalent Samp/T, but in too few numbers to protect all its cities. But Russia once again affirms that, with the Orechnik missile, it has a device that is impossible to intercept and capable of reaching all countries in Europe.

Russian President Vladimir Putin touted Friday “the power” of this weapon during a meeting with military officials broadcast on television, and ordered “start mass production”. “We will continue these tests, including in combat situations, depending on the situation and the nature of the threats to Russia’s security”he added, raising the threat of new strikes against Ukraine after it targeted Russian territory this week with American and British missiles.

American President Joe Biden lifted his veto on these shots last weekend, arguing in particular for the mobilization, alongside Russian troops, of North Korean soldiers. A senior American official speaking on condition of anonymity on Friday tempered the threat posed by the new Russian missile, “an experimental weapon of which Russia has a limited number and which it is not able to deploy regularly.”

Moscow's best ally within the European Union, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, for his part, called not to minimize the threats from Russia, a country endowed with “the most destructive weapons in the world”. Volodymyr Zelensky, however, argued on Friday that Russia's demonstrative use of a missile of this type to strike Ukraine “ridicules the position of states like China, of states in the global South, of certain leaders who call for restraint every time”.

In a speech to the nation on Thursday evening, Vladimir Putin placed the responsibility for the escalation on the West. He believed that the war in Ukraine had taken a “global character” and threatened to strike countries supplying weapons to kyiv. NATO and Ukraine are due to meet in Brussels on Tuesday to discuss the situation, with kyiv saying it is waiting for decisions “concrete” of his allies.

On the ground, the Russian army has been advancing little by little for months at the cost of heavy losses in eastern Ukraine. A highly placed source within the Ukrainian general staff indicated on Friday that Russian troops were advancing “200-300 meters per day” near Kourakhové, one of the localities which could soon fall. Near Pokrovsk, a major logistical node for Ukrainian forces, the situation is more favorable and “has hardly changed over the last two months”, according to this military source.

The Ukrainian forces, which lack recruits and equipment, also have no intention of withdrawing from the Russian region of Kursk, further north, of which they still control “environ 800 km2” since their incursion in August, this source reported.

In kyiv, the Parliament, the Rada, canceled its session due to “signals of an increased risk of attacks against the government district in the coming days”explained several deputies to AFP. In the heart of the capital, this district where the presidency, the seat of government and the Central Bank are also located has so far been spared the bombings.

In Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine of nearly a million inhabitants before the war, which was targeted Thursday by the Orechnik missile strike, residents interviewed Friday by AFP were still in shock, although only accustomed to Russian strikes. “We are always afraid, but this was different”explained Janna, 49, who works at a market. The Ukrainian authorities have remained silent on the damage caused. The strike would have targeted a factory of the PivdenMach group which notably produces components for missiles. AFP journalists were unable to confirm that this factory had indeed been hit.

kyiv lost 40% of the territories captured this summer from Russia

Ukraine lost more than 40% of the territory in Russia's Kursk region that it quickly seized last summer in a surprise incursion, with Russian forces stepping up counterattacks to regain this ground, a spokesman said. we learned from a high-ranking Ukrainian military source.

The source, who is from Ukraine's General Staff, said Russia had deployed some 59,000 troops to the Kursk region since kyiv's forces swept into Russian territory, catching Moscow off guard after two years and half full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“At maximum, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers (531 square miles), but that territory is of course smaller today. The enemy is increasing counterattacks”said the source. “Today we control approximately 800 square kilometers. We will hold this territory as long as it is militarily appropriate”.

The Kursk offensive was the first land invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II, shocking Moscow. With the push on Kursk, kyiv aimed to stem Russian attacks in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, to force Russia to withdraw its forces that are gradually advancing westward, and to give kyiv a means of additional pressure in possible peace negotiations.

The Ukrainian General Staff source reiterated that around 11,000 North Korean troops had arrived in the Kursk region to support Russia, but that the bulk of their forces were still finalizing their preparations. The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on kyiv's most recent assessment of the state of the situation in the Kursk region. Reuters could not independently verify the figures or descriptions given.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Russian drone and missile strikes had damaged 321 Ukrainian port infrastructure sites since July 2023. He added that 20 civilian ships of other nationalities had also been damaged by Russian strikes.