Ukraine-Russia live: North Koreans in Putin’s ‘meat grinder’ war legitimate military target, says Blinken

Ukraine believes around 12,000 North Korean soldiers are already involved in Russia’s war on the country which is going to clock 1,000 days soon.

Ukraine, alongside South Korea, were the first officials to alarm against North Korea’s soldiers entering the war from Russian side.

The US officials said they estimate there are about 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia. Seoul and its allies assess that the number has increased to 11,000.

Reports of North Korean troops arriving in Russia’s Kursk region to help Russian troops fight off a Ukrainian border incursion began more than a week ago. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters that North Korean officers and technical personnel have already been spotted in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. “I believe they sent officers first to assess the situation before deploying troops,” Mr Zelensky said. He has cautioned that the participation of a third country could escalate the conflict into a 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.

Russian troops attacked a strategic bridge across the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Estuary in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight, launching two ballistic Iskander missiles and eight guided missiles, said the Ukrainian military on Thursday.

The bridge has been a target several times over the past two years, and is an important railway and car connection in the region.

The Ukrainian military added that Russia used two ballistic missiles to attack the eastern town of Kramatorsk.

The air force shot down 17 out of 43 drones and two guided missiles launched by Russia overnight, it said, adding that 23 drones were “locationally lost”, likely due to electronic warfare and three more left Ukraine-controlled airspace.

All drones threatening the capital Kyiv were disabled by air defence.

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:

The US expects North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region to enter the fight against Ukraine in the coming days, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said.

There are 10,000 North Korean troops in Russia, including as many as 8,000 in the Kursk region, the top US diplomat said. Ukrainian forces continue to hold territory in Kursk after fighting their way into the Russian border area in August.

At a press conference with defence secretary Lloyd Austin and their South Korean counterparts, Mr Blinken said Russia has been training the North Korean soldiers in artillery, unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, and basic infantry operations, indicating they “fully intend” to use the forces in frontline operations.

They would become legitimate military targets if they enter the battlefield, he said.

“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukrainian forces, but we would expect that to happen in the coming days,” he said.

During their meeting, the US and South Korea discussed a range of options for responding, Mr Blinken added, saying Moscow’s use of North Korean soldiers in its “meat grinder” war against Ukraine was a “clear sign of weakness.”

At least three, including a child and a teenager, were killed on a Russian-guided bomb strike on Kharkiv.

The death toll was confirmed yesterday after rescue teams completed recovery operations at a high-rise residence in the northeastern Ukrainian city.

Emergency services said children aged 12 and 15 were among the dead in the Wednesday evening strike, and thirty-six people were injured.

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov earlier said that one of the children had been pulled from under rubble with head wounds and fractures, but medics were unable to save him.

Mr Syniehubov said the strike had triggered a fire and destroyed most of one entrance, making a huge hole in the building.

Kharkiv remained in Ukrainian hands through the initial failed advance of Russian forces on the capital Kyiv in the early days of the February 2022 invasion. It has since become a frequent target of Russian air attacks.

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.

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.

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.”