Politics Kiev: Russia is increasingly relying on North Korean soldiers
According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, the Russian military is now using large numbers of North Korean soldiers in attacks in its own border region of Kursk.
15.12.2024, 05:15
SDA
"The losses in this category are also already considerable," said Zelenskyi in the evening video message. He did not give any figures. Selensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of deliberately expanding the war against Ukraine and ignoring calls from China and Brazil to do everything possible to de-escalate the situation.
The first reports of North Korean soldiers being sent to Russia emerged in October. At the beginning of November, Ukraine reported for the first time that these soldiers had been involved in fighting. According to Selenskyj, the North Koreans are now largely integrated into Russian units and could soon appear on other sections of the front.
High Russian losses in the Kursk region
The Ukrainian troops captured parts of the western Russian region of Kursk in a surprise counterattack in August. For the Kremlin, which has always wanted to fix the "realities on the ground", i.e. its own conquests in Ukraine, as a precondition for peace negotiations, the expulsion of the Ukrainians from Kursk is therefore a top priority. According to military circles, this should be done before the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump at the end of January to ensure a good negotiating position.
However, according to observers, the heavy attacks in the fall led to high casualties. Numerous videos of columns of armored vehicles being shot down are circulating online. Most recently, Russian military bloggers reported on the storming of a village in which North Korean soldiers were also involved. Ukraine still holds a bridgehead of around 800 square kilometers in the Kursk region.
Heavy fighting along the entire front
According to the Ukrainian General Staff, there were 55 clashes in the Kursk region alone over the course of the day. Despite the onset of winter weather, fighting intensified once again along the entire front. The evening situation report mentions a total of 274 battles - 84 more than the day before.
In addition to the section in front of Pokrovsk, which has been heavily contested for weeks, the Russian troops surprisingly activated their attacks further north on the border between the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The General Staff reported that Russian troops had made 55 advances in the Siwersk area and that 39 of the battles were still ongoing.
Russia's former President Medvedev hints at further annexations
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev raised the possibility of further territorial annexations in Ukraine at a party conference of the Kremlin party United Russia. He called for the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions (annexed by Moscow) to be developed. "Incidentally, this experience can be helpful if other new regions appear in our country that are very close to us," which is quite possible, said Medvedev. As chairman of the United Russia party and deputy head of the National Security Council, he is still influential in Russia.
The Kremlin, which started the war in 2022 under the pretext of protecting the Russian-speaking civilian population in the Donbass, has only partially conquered the four regions so far, but is demanding that Kiev cede them as a precondition for peace talks. Moscow has also repeatedly threatened further annexations if Ukraine does not accept the demand.
