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Liveupdated1730368147

Ukraine-Russia war live: North Korean troops deployed to frontline will ‘surely return in body bags’, US says

Number of North Korean soldiers inside Ukraine set to grow, Western intelligence official adds

Shahana Yasmin
Thursday 31 October 2024 05:49
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Ukraine video claims to show North Korean soldiers lining up to collect Russia military gear

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The US and South Korea have called on North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia that are reportedly already inside Ukraine.

“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,” Robert Wood, US envoy to the UN, said.

South Korea and its allies have claimed that North Korea has sent at least 11,000 soldiers to Russia, with more than 3,000 of them now deployed close to the frontlines in Ukraine, a presidential official in Seoul said on Wednesday.

The US said some of the North Korean soldiers were in Kursk, a border region where the Russian forces have been fighting off a Ukrainian incursion since August. A couple of thousand more were heading there, the Pentagon said.

This came as Ukraine drafted 160,000 more people in anticipation of grinding warfare and a frozen battle zone in the upcoming winter, the third such under Russian invasion.

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Russia claims UK using Black Sea corridor to supply Ukraine with arms

Russia has claimed Britain is using a Black Sea grain corridor to deliver arms to Ukraine, after denying London's allegations that Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports had disrupted crucial grain supplies for other countries.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week that an increase in Russian attacks on Ukraine's Black Sea ports was delaying vital aid reaching the Palestinians and stopping crucial grain supplies from being delivered to the global south.

The United Nations said last week that Russian attacks on Ukrainian Black Sea ports had damaged six civilian vessels as well as grain infrastructure since 1 September, calling the ramp-up in strikes "distressing".

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Starmer's allegations that Moscow was damaging global food security with such strikes were wide of the mark.

"Such baseless yet thunderous outrage from London once again confirms just the opposite: the direct involvement of the UK in supplying arms to the Kiev regime using the Black Sea sea corridor," she alleged in a press briefing.

Zakharova referred to what she said was recent video evidence concerning the port of Yuzhny, in Ukraine's Odesa region, and purported arms supplies published by Russia's Ministry of Defence.

Her claims could not be independently verified and there was no immediate response to them from London.

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 13:02
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Watch: Putin launches drills of Russia’s nuclear forces

Putin launches drills of Russia's nuclear forces
Tara Cobham30 October 2024 12:57
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Germany talked with China about North Korean soldiers in Russia

Germany discussed with China findings by NATO and the United States that North Korean soldiers are in Russia, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

"You can assume that we have discussed the issue with the Chinese side," the spokesperson said.

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 12:07
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China and Russia discuss Ukraine crisis with Beijing reaffirming strong ties

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko discussed the Ukraine crisis in talks on Wednesday and Wang reaffirmed Beijing's strong ties with Moscow, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Both exchanged views on the crisis but the ministry statement did not disclose details of the discussion.

Wang reiterated China and Russia's strong relations, that were not affected by "changes in the international situation".

"Both sides should make joint efforts to coordinate cooperation in various fields and exchanges at all levels," he said, without elaboration.

Russia's RIA agency first reported that Rudenko was in Beijing for the meeting.

The visit takes place as Russia's war in Ukraine appeared to take a dangerous new turn, with NATO and South Korea expressing alarm that North Korean troops could soon be joining Moscow's side.

Rudenko has been involved in developing Russian ties with North Korea after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. He was also a member of the Russian delegations at peace negotiations with Ukraine early in the war.

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 11:30
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Russia fines Google $2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

A Russian court has fined Google $2.5 decillion for allegedly blocking pro-Kremlin propaganda on YouTube.

The fine, which is the equivalent of $2.5 trillion trillion trillion, is the result of four years of accumulated fines, with the figure currently doubling every week under Russian law.

The original penalty of 100,000 rubles was handed to the US tech giant in 2020 after the media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won lawsuits related to restrictions on their YouTube channels.

Anthony Cuthbertson reports:

Russia fines Google $2,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

US tech giant receives $2.5 decillion penalty after taking action against Russian propaganda

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 11:00
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North Korean and Russian foreign ministers to hold Moscow talks

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will hold strategic consultations in Moscow with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the ministry, told a news briefing the North Korean minister was on her way to Moscow and that details of her talks with Lavrov, including the exact timing, would be released later.

"In accordance with the agreement reached during the Russian-Korean summit meeting in Pyongyang in June, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Choe Son Hui, is arriving in Moscow on an official visit to hold strategic consultations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov," Zakharova said.

The visit, the minister's second to Russia in six weeks, comes as the Russia-Ukraine war appears to have taken a dangerous new turn, with NATO and South Korea expressing alarm that North Korean troops could soon be joining in on Moscow's side.

North Korea's foreign minister arrived in Russia's far east on Tuesday on her way to Moscow, Russian state media said.

The Kremlin, which on Wednesday referred a question about her visit to the foreign ministry, has said Russian President Vladimir Putin has no plans to meet her.

Russian government officials have said Moscow has every right to develop its relations with Pyongyang as it sees fit, including under the terms of a mutual defence clause agreed earlier this year.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (left) enter a hall for their talks in Moscow in January
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (right) and North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui (left) enter a hall for their talks in Moscow in January (Maxim Shemetov/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Tara Cobham30 October 2024 10:37
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Kremlin dismisses report about Russia-Ukraine talks on halting strikes on energy facilities

The Kremlin has dismissed a report that Russia and Ukraine are in the early stages of negotiations about potentially halting airstrikes on each other's energy facilities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that there were many reports out there "which have nothing to do with reality".

The Financial Times, citing sources who it said included senior Ukrainian officials, reported that Ukraine was seeking to resume talks that had come close to an agreement in August and were mediated by Qatar.

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 10:06
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Russia says it takes control of village of Kruhliakivka in eastern Ukraine, state news agency reports

Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Kruhliakivka in eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region, the RIA news agency cited Russia's Defence Ministry as saying on Wednesday.

The battlefield report from the Russian state-owned news agency could not be independently verified.

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 09:25
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North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine may welcome rare tour

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.

“They are too young and won’t understand exactly what it means. They’ll just consider it an honor to be selected as the ones to go to Russia among the many North Korean soldiers,” said Lee Woong-gil, a former member of the same special forces unit, the Storm Corps. He came to South Korea in 2007. “But I think most of them won’t likely come back home alive.”

Hyung-Jin Kim reports:

North Korean troops sent to fight in Ukraine may welcome rare tour

Thousands of young North Korean elite troops sent to Russia lack combat experience, local knowledge, and face speculation they'll be sent to Ukraine's fiercest battlefields

Tara Cobham30 October 2024 09:00
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In pictures: Russian drone strike hits Kyiv

A Russian drone strike hit Kyiv on Wednesday
A Russian drone strike hit Kyiv on Wednesday (REUTERS)
A firefighter works at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike in the Ukrainian capital
A firefighter works at a site of an apartment building hit by a Russian drone strike in the Ukrainian capital (via REUTERS)
An apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv
An apartment building damaged by a Russian drone strike in Kyiv (REUTERS)
Tara Cobham30 October 2024 08:41

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