Ukraine Russia war latest: North Koreans in Putin’s ‘meat grinder’ war legitimate target, says Blinken | The Independent

Around 8,000 North Korean troops expected to enter battlefield in coming days, says US

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North Korea’s soldiers fighting on behalf of Russia inside Vladimir Putin’s “meat grinder” war will be a legitimate military target, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said.

The top US diplomat said that the North Korean soldiers will enter the war in Ukraine in the “coming days” as he confirmed there are 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region.

The US and South Korea have ramped up their pitch calling on North Korea to withdraw their troops already inside Ukraine and fighting alongside Russia.

“Should DPRK’s troops enter Ukraine in support of Russia, they will surely return in body bags. So I would advise Chairman Kim to think twice about engaging in such reckless and dangerous behaviour,” said Robert Wood, US envoy to the UN.

On the war front, at least three people, including a 12-year-old boy and a teenager, were killed in a Russian-guided bomb strike on Kharkiv. A child aged 12 was among the dead in the Wednesday evening strike, and thirty-six people were injured.

North Korea’s foreign minister Choe Son Hui has reportedly accused the United States and South Korea of plotting a nuclear strike against her country.

She did not provide evidence while making this assertion in a Moscow meeting with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, but claimed that such plotting took place during regular consultations between Washington and Seoul, Reuters reported.

Claiming the situation on the Korean Peninsula could become “explosive” any moment, Ms Choe told Mr Lavrov that the North needed to strengthen its nuclear arsenal and perfect its readiness to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike if necessary, while pledging commitment to helping Russia win its war in Ukraine.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov plans to visit Malta in December – in what would mark his first visit to the EU since Russia invaded Ukraine – to take part in a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), according to a report citing foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.

Malta’s embassy to Russia told Russian outlet Vedomosti that the decision to hold the OSCE ministerial council meeting on the island on 5 and 6 December “applies to all members, including the Russian Federation”.

“OSCE delegations are regularly informed about the progress of preparations. Further practical details, including invitations, will be sent to all OSCE delegations in due course,” it said.

Ukrainian air defences destroyed 31 out of 48 drones launched overnight by Russia, Kyiv’s air force has said.

Another 14 drones were “locationally lost” and one out of three cruise missiles launched was also destroyed, the air force said.

A drone fell on an oil depot in Russia’s southern Stavropol region, local governor Vladimir Vladimirov has said, adding that there were no casualties.

It marks the second suspected Ukrainian attack in consecutive days on Russian fuel and energy targets, following a lull of around seven weeks since a fuel facility in Tula was attacked.

Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russia’s security services, posted a CCTV video purportedly showing the attack on the oil depot. The footage showed that at least one of several fuel tanks was swiftly engulfed by a fireball.

On Thursday, several fuel and energy facilities were targeted in a Ukrainian drone attack on the central Russian region of Bashkortostan, home to Bashneft, a major oil company controlled by Russia’s leading oil producer, Rosneft .

The attacks come days after the Financial Times reported early-stage talks between Ukraine and Russia about potentially halting airstrikes on each other’s energy facilities. The Kremlin dismissed the report.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin has said Russia is now relying on North Korean troops in the wake of heavy battlefield losses.

“They’re doing this because (Russian president Vladimir) Putin has lost a lot of troops,” Mr Austin said, adding that Moscow has a choice between mobilising more of its own forces or turning to others for help.

Mr Austin said Ukraine could hold on to Russian territory in Kursk, and that the number of North Korean troops pales in comparison to casualties Russian forces recently have been suffering – some 1,250 a day.

“I do believe that they can hold on to the territory, if they choose to do that. They do have options,” Austin said of Ukrainian troops.

Russia has had to shift some resources to the Kursk border region to respond to Ukraine’s offensive.

The deployment of up to 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia has become a key topic as US and South Korean leaders meet in Washington this week, fueling concerns that the presence of those soldiers will further destabilise the Asia-Pacific and broaden Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

As some of those troops moved closer to Ukraine this week from training sites in eastern Russia, the main questions revolve around what new military technologies North Korea might get from Russia in exchange for the deployment and whether it might lead other nations to send their own forces to fight in the war.

The deployment of up to 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia is a key topic as U.S. and South Korean leaders meet in Washington

Russian air defences downed 83 Ukrainian drones overnight, the TASS news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry this morning.

South Korea has said it is considering sending a military team to Ukraine to monitor the expected deployment of North Korean troops on the frontlines by Russia.

North Korea has sent some 11,000 soldiers to Russia and over 3,000 of them have been moved close to the frontlines, Reuters quoted an unnamed South Korean official as saying.

The official said North Korea will gain military knowledge from its troops helping the Russian war effort which poses a military threat to South Korea. “So it is incumbent upon us to analyse and monitor the activities of North Korean troops against our ally, Ukraine,” the official added.

South Korea and its allies say nearly 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia

The thousands of young soldiers North Korea has sent to Russia, reportedly to help fight against Ukraine, are mostly elite special forces, but that hasn’t stopped speculation they’ll be slaughtered because they have no combat experience, no familiarity with the terrain and will likely be dropped onto the most ferocious battlefields.

That may be true, and soon. Observers say the troops are already arriving at the front. From the North Korean perspective, however, these soldiers might not be as miserable as outsiders think.

They may, in fact, view their Russian tour with pride and as a rare chance to make good money, see a foreign country for the first time, and win preferred treatment for their families back home, according to former North Korean soldiers.

Thousands of young North Korean elite troops sent to Russia lack combat experience and local knowledge

The Pentagon has said that North Korea dispatched 10,000 troops to Russia, with some of them believed to be heading to the Kursk border to join Vladimir Putin’s forces in their invasion of Ukraine amid the biggest conflict Europe has seen since the Second World War.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said some North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region. The Russian forces are facing difficulty in pushing back Ukraine’s cross-border incursion launched on 6 August.

This came within hours of Nato secretary general Mark Rutte confirming recent Ukrainian intelligence reports of the presence of North Korean military units deployed to Kursk near the Ukrainian border.

Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh says North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine and were believed to be heading for Kursk

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