Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Kyiv announced a fresh mobilization drive Tuesday as Moscow seized the mining hub of Selydove and the US reported that some North Korean troops were in Russia’s Kursk region, warning that thousands more were on their way. Russia has been making swift advances in the eastern Donetsk region for weeks, and on Tuesday claimed to have “fully” captured Selydove, whose estimated population of around 21,000 has fled from Moscow’s drone and rocket attacks.
Concern has grown in Kyiv and the West regarding North Korea’s military cooperation with Russia, with neither the Kremlin nor Pyongyang denying that the reclusive country’s troops were in Russia. The Pentagon stated that a “small number” of North Korean troops have been deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces have held onto land since summer. Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder indicated that the US had information suggesting that “a couple thousand more (North Korean troops) are either almost there or due to arrive imminently.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke with South Korea’s president on Tuesday and agreed on deeper cooperation. Ukraine has been struggling with deepening manpower shortages over recent months and is embroiled in an unpopular debate about how to bolster the military’s ranks. On Tuesday, the Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security Council, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, told Parliament that the army planned to recruit another 160,000 people. An AFP source indicated that the recruitment would take place over three months.
Moscow also announced that it had gained control of the nearby villages of Bogoyavlenka, Girnyk, and Katerynivka in the Donetsk region, which President Vladimir Putin claimed was formally part of Russia in late 2022, the year Moscow invaded. The gains announced on Tuesday are just the latest in a series of Russian advances that have gained momentum since February with the collapse of Ukraine’s defenses in the stronghold town of Avdiivka. Russia has advanced 478 square kilometers (185 square miles) in October alone—a record since March 2022—according to an AFP analysis of data from the American Institute for the Study of War. Two-thirds of the Russian gains, or 324 square kilometers, were in the Donetsk region.
Zelensky mentioned discussing the deployment of North Korean troops with South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk Yeol. Both countries, along with leaders of the NATO military alliance and the United States, are sounding the alarm over the transfer of some 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia. “The conclusion is clear: this war is becoming internationalized, extending beyond two countries,” Zelensky told the South Korean leader, as reported in a readout of the call released by Kyiv.
Yoon remarked that the involvement of North Korean troops in the Ukraine conflict was “unprecedented and dangerous,” warning about the potential transfer of sensitive military technology and combat experience from Moscow to Pyongyang. Ukraine is set to host a delegation from South Korea to discuss the escalation in the near future, a high-ranking official at the Ukrainian presidency stated. “We expect to hear some sensitive details that cannot be conveyed over the phone. It’s clear that we have to work more together in light of what Pyongyang is doing,” the official told AFP.
At the same time, North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui arrived in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, as reported by TASS state news agency, citing a diplomatic source who indicated that “tomorrow she will be in Moscow.” Neither Russia nor North Korea—both nuclear-capable states—has denied the presence of North Korean troops in Russia, which on Tuesday escalated long-running nuclear sabre-rattling by announcing fresh nuclear drills overseen by Putin.
Meanwhile, Zelensky was visiting Iceland to rally allies around his “victory plan,” which calls for an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO. He was also expected to appeal to Nordic leaders for increased military aid and air defense systems. Just hours before Moscow announced its alleged advances in eastern Ukraine, aerial bombardments from Russia killed four people in Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv—approximately 30 kilometers (18 miles) from the Russian border, according to the mayor. Mayor Igor Terekhov reported that nearly two dozen buildings were destroyed or damaged in the attack, which occurred around 0000 GMT.
This followed a separate strike that damaged the Derzhprom, a modernist structure considered to be one of the first Soviet skyscrapers. AFP journalists at the scene of the later strike witnessed emergency service workers removing the remains of those killed in black body bags by lamplight. Russian attacks also resulted in fatalities, with two people killed in Kherson and another in Odesa, both in southern Ukraine.
© 2024 AFP
