Latest Ukraine-Russia war: North Korean troops ‘already in Ukraine’ as Kiev draws 160,000 more to frontline

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the West must accept that Russia “won” in Georgia and is on track to do the same in Moldova unless the West abandons its rhetoric against crossing Moscow’s red lines.

“For today, we have to accept that Russia won in Georgia. First they took part of Georgia, then they changed the policy, the government. And now (Georgia) has a pro-Russian government,” he said in a video published in English. he said. Wednesday.

He added that Russia was on track to do the same in Moldova. “And of course they will do this if the West does not stop the dialogue against crossing red lines,” Zelenskiy said.

Russia has claimed Britain is using the Black Sea grain corridor to transport arms to Ukraine, after London rejected claims that Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports were disrupting 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 from reaching the Palestinians and preventing key grain supplies from being delivered to the global south.

The United Nations announced last week that Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports have damaged grain infrastructure as well as six civilian ships since September 1, describing the increase in attacks as “regrettable”.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Starmer’s claims that Moscow harms global food security with such attacks are unrealistic.

“Such unfounded but violent anger from London once again confirms the exact opposite: the direct interference of the United Kingdom in the supply of arms to the Kiev regime using the Black Sea maritime corridor,” he said at a press conference.

Zakharova said there is recent video evidence of the Yuzhny port in the Odessa region of Ukraine and the so-called weapons materials released by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

His claims could not be independently verified and there was no immediate response from London.

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

“You can assume that we have discussed the issue with the Chinese side,” the spokesman said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko discussed the Ukraine crisis in their meeting on Wednesday, with Wang reaffirming Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Both exchanged views on the crisis, but the details of the discussion were not disclosed in the ministry statement.

Wang reiterated that China and Russia’s strong relations are not affected by “changes in the international situation.”

“Both parties should make joint efforts to coordinate cooperation in various fields and exchanges at all levels,” he said, without going into any details. he said.

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

The visit comes at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine is taking a dangerous new turn, and NATO and South Korea are raising alarms that North Korean troops may soon join Moscow’s side.

Rudenko was involved in improving Russia’s ties with North Korea after Moscow launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He was also a member of Russian delegations to peace negotiations with Ukraine early in the war.

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

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

The first 100,000 ruble fine was imposed on the US tech giant in 2020 after media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won cases regarding restrictions on their YouTube channels.

Anthony Cuthbertson reports:

In a statement made on Wednesday by the Russian Foreign Ministry, it was stated that North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will hold strategic consultations with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the North Korean minister was on his way to Moscow and details of his talks with Lavrov, including the exact timing, would be announced later.

“In accordance with the agreement reached at the Russia-Korea summit meeting held in Pyongyang in June, Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Choe Son Hui is coming to Moscow on an official visit to hold strategic consultations with Russia. “Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov,” Zakharova said .

The visit, the minister’s second to Russia in six weeks, comes as the Russia-Ukraine war takes a dangerous new turn, with NATO and South Korea voicing alarm that North Korean troops may soon join Moscow’s side.

North Korea’s foreign minister arrived in Russia’s far east on Tuesday en route to Moscow, Russian state media said.

Asked about his visit to the foreign ministry on Wednesday, the Kremlin said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had no plans to meet with him.

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

The Kremlin has denied reports that Russia and Ukraine are in the early stages of talks on potentially halting air strikes on each other’s energy facilities.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that there were many reports that “have nothing to do with reality.”

Finance TimesAccording to the news, based on sources including senior Ukrainian officials, Ukraine is trying to restart the negotiations, which reached an agreement in August and were mediated by Qatar.

Russian forces took control of the Kruhliakivka settlement in the Kharkiv region of eastern Ukraine, RIA news agency reported on Wednesday from the Russian Defense Ministry.

The Russian state news agency’s battlefield report could not be independently verified.

Thousands of young soldiers north korea sent to: RussiaIt is reported that it will help fight against UkrainianThey are mostly elite special forces, but that hasn’t stopped speculation that they will be massacred because they have no combat experience, are unfamiliar with the terrain, and will likely be thrown into the wildest battlefields.

This may be true, and soon. Observers say the troops have already arrived at the front. But from a North Korean perspective, these soldiers may not be as miserable as outsiders think. For former North Korean soldiers, they may actually view their trips to Russia with pride and as a rare chance to make good money, see a foreign country for the first time, and gain preferential treatment for their families back home.

“They are very young and will not fully understand what this means. “They will consider it an honor to be chosen from among a large number of North Korean soldiers to be the ones to go to Russia,” said Lee Woong-gil, a former member of the same special forces unit, the Storm Troopers. he came South Korea In 2007. “But I don’t think most of them will make it home alive.”