A Western diplomat familiar with this matter told the Kyiv Independent that North Korea had sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia in order to boost its war effort against Ukraine.
This week, concerns about the growing military ties between Moscow & Pyongyang grew dramatically.
On October 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia’s plans to support its full-scale invasion in Ukraine this autumn would include “the actual participation of North Korea in war.”
The Western diplomat told Kyiv Independent it was unclear what type of soldiers these men were or what their roles are. The Kyiv Independent reached out to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, but received no response at the time of publication. The Ukrainian military intelligence (HUR), declined to comment.
Western diplomats and analysts say that the growing military ties between Russia and North Korea show Moscow’s growing need for resources in order to continue its costly war against Ukraine.
John Foreman CBE was the former U.K. defense attache to Moscow from 2019-2022. He told the Kyiv Independent that “it’s a clear indication of how far Russia and its army have fallen in the last 2.5 years”
In early this year, during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Pyongyang, the two countries signed an agreement on mutual defense.
As part of this alliance, the North Korean army announced that a unit of engineers would join Russian forces in Donetsk Oblast next month.
There is no evidence to date of this happening.
Putin presented the treaty to the Russian State Duma on October 14 for ratification. It stipulates that either nation will provide military assistance to the opposing nation in the event of a war.
Zelensky warned that Russia and North Korea are deepening their partnership on October 13, saying that it had escalated to a point where North Korea is sending personnel along with weapons to Ukraine’s front line.
“This is not just about transferring arms. He said that it was about transferring North Koreans to the occupying forces.
The warning came after reports from South Korean Defence Minister Kim Yong-Hyun indicating that North Korea was likely to deploy regular soldiers to Ukraine to assist Russia at the front.
In recent days, reports have also surfaced that North Korean officers had been killed in a Ukrainian rocket strike on territory occupied by Russia.
The Kyiv independent has not been in a position to verify these reports. They have not been confirmed by more than one intelligence source.
Ukrainian and U.S. officials have claimed that North Korea has supplied Russia with vast quantities of artillery and ballistic missiles since the fall of 2023.
Interfax reported that Roskomnadzor, the federal censorship authority, confirmed that Steam, with its online catalog of over 100,000 games, and the use by more than 130 million people around the world including about 10 million in Russia has agreed to comply to the law.
David Arakhamia is the leader of Zelensky’s Servant of the People, a parliamentary group. He made comments to the Kyiv Independent.
Financial Times (FT), Oct. 15, reported that Elina Valtonen, Finnish Foreign Minister, warned that Western countries are becoming tired of their support for Ukraine and called for a stronger commitment to backing Kyiv.
According to a Harvard CAPS/Harris survey, 48% of voters in swing states who said they’d vote early supported Trump while 47% supported Harris. Another 5% of voters said they had voted or chose another candidate.
Mark Rutte stated in an interview with Reuters on October 13 and German radio Hessischer Rundfunk that “the message (to Russian president Vladimir Putin) is that he won’t get his way. Ukraine will prevail.”
On Oct. 14, hundreds of Ukrainian schools, businesses and media outlets including the Kyiv Independent received bomb threats by email. This prompted the evacuation of state institutions.
In an interview with Kremlin‘s RIA Novosti, published on October 15, Peter Szijjarto, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that Budapest and Russia’s state-owned Gazprom are in discussions on additional gas purchases next year.
The Air Force reported that Ukrainian forces shot down 12 of the 17 drones of the type Shahed launched by Russia over night. Overnight, seven S-300/400 and two Kh-59 rockets were fired at Mykolaiv Oblast.
“With the beginning of the ‘heating seasons,’ we can anticipate massive Russian strikes in the energy sector,” Oleksandrlytvynenko said, National Security and Defense Council Sec.
Dmytro Lytvyn, Ukraine’s presidential advisor, reacted after a nearly week-long silence following Ukrainska Pravda‘s claim that the Ukrainian Government is exerting “systematic” pressure against one of Ukraine’s largest news media sites.
The statement follows an article in the French newspaper Le Monde that claimed that Tuareg fighters of the anti-government CSP were using Ukrainian drones to attack the military and Wagner mercenaries.
“Now the town is more like a desert world: there are no shelters either for civilians or soldiers,” Anastasia Bobovnikova said, a spokesperson for the Operational Tactical Group Luhansk.
“It was (Ukraine) the apple of his eyes; he used talk about it.” Donald Trump said that he had told him, “You’re not going to go in, and he was not going to go in.”
This includes 1,210 casualties that Russian forces have suffered in the last day.
According to Vitalii Kim, the Russian forces attacked the city at around 2:30 am with S-300 anti-aircraft weapons. An industrial complex, a restaurant, shops, residential structures, and cars were all damaged.
According to the Eastern Human Rights Group, Ukrainians suffering from diabetes, bronchial asthma, and other illnesses on Russian-occupied territory will no longer be eligible for free medication unless they obtain Russian passports by 2025.
Lubos Blaha is a senior member of the pro-Russian Smer party (Direction), led by Robert Fico, who visited Moscow on October 12.
Josep Borrell announced on October 14 that he plans to extend the EUMAM for two more years, pending the approval of the EU Council.
On Oct. 14, hundreds of Ukrainian schools, businesses and media outlets including the Kyiv Independent received bomb threats by email. This prompted evacuations. The threats were linked to a recent investigation conducted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty into Russian security services sabotage of Ukraine.
Andrii Kostin, the prosecutor general of Brazil, said that “information” that Putin might attend the G20 Summit in Brazil obligates the Brazilian authorities to arrest him.
According to Ukraine’s Military Intelligence, Russia’s fall and winter plans include “the actual participation of North Korea in war”, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on October 14.
The treaty stipulates that both countries must provide military support to each other in the event of an attack. The first treaty was signed by Putin in June 2024 with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
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