Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on allies to stop monitoring and take action before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, while Ukraine’s army chief of staff said his troops were ready to launch Moscow’s “strongest offensive since World War II.” He warned that he was facing “one of the following.” All-out war began more than two years ago.
Zelenskyy raised the possibility of a preemptive strike by Ukraine against camps where North Korean troops are training, and said Kiev was aware of their locations. But he said Ukraine could not do so without permission from its allies, which would use Western-made long-range weapons to attack targets inside Russia.
“But instead… The US is watching, the UK is watching, and Germany is also watching. Everyone is waiting for the North Korean army to attack the Ukrainian army,” Zelenskyy said in a post late Friday on the Telegram messaging app.
The Biden administration said Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean troops are currently stationed in Russia’s Kursk region near the Ukrainian border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight Ukrainian forces in the coming days.
On Saturday, Ukrainian military intelligence said more than 7,000 North Korean soldiers equipped with Russian equipment and weapons had been transferred to neighboring Ukraine. The agency, known by its acronym GUR, said North Korean troops were being trained in five regions in Russia’s Far East. The source of the information was not specified.
Western leaders described the North Korean military deployment as a significant escalation that could shock relations in the Asia-Pacific region and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to North Korea that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs. .
North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui met with his Russian counterpart in Moscow last Friday.
Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to attack weapons depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to pursue peace. In response, U.S. Pentagon officials argued that the number of missiles was limited and that Ukraine was already using its own long-range drones to strike targets farther away than Russia.
Moscow has also consistently indicated that it would view such a strike as a major escalation. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would “go to war” with the United States and its NATO membership if it recognizes them.
Ukraine faces ‘strong’ offensive from Russia
Zelenskyy’s call came shortly before Ukraine’s top commander, Gen. Oleksandr Sirsky, said Saturday that his troops were struggling to stop “one of the strongest offensives” by Russia since its full-scale invasion of its southern neighbor in February 2022. .
Sirsky wrote on Telegram after a phone call with a top Czech military official, implying that Ukrainian units were suffering heavy losses in combat and “need constant renewal of resources.”
Sirsky did not specify where the heavy fighting took place, but Russia has been waging a fierce campaign along Ukraine’s eastern front for months, gradually forcing Kiev to surrender. But Moscow has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk border area since the incursion nearly three months ago.
Dozens injured in Russian and Ukraine airstrikes
Local governor Oleh Syniehubov said a Russian missile struck Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, overnight Saturday, killing a police officer and wounding dozens more. A missile struck a large police gathering, killing a 40-year-old soldier and wounding 36 others, according to Siniehubov and Ukrainian police.
A 40-year-old woman was killed and three others, including two children, were wounded by Russian artillery fire in southern Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Later that day, another Kherson resident was injured in a drone strike, according to local Ukrainian authorities.
Five civilians, including two children, were injured after Russian airstrikes in central Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhiy Lysak said.
Air raid sirens blared for more than five hours as Russian drones rained down on the capital on Saturday morning, setting fire to a city office block and injuring two people, according to Kiev military authorities.
Overall, Russian forces used more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones to attack Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Saturday. Most of them are said to have been shot down or deviated from their routes using GPS jamming. Falling debris damaged power grids and residential buildings in several provinces and injured an elderly woman near Kiev, officials said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow launched more than half as many drones in October than a month earlier, suggesting Russia’s drone campaign may be slowing.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that Russian forces shot down 24 Ukrainian drones in four Russian regions overnight and occupied the Crimean peninsula. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
