US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin weighed in on reports that North Korea is preparing to send troops to war in Ukraine.
“If they are co-belligerents and their intent is to enter this war on Russia’s behalf, then that is a very serious problem,” Austin said.
Austin is returning from his fourth trip to Kiev, where he announced a $400 million package of American weapons for Ukraine.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Washington believes at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers arrived by sea this month in Vladivostok, Russia’s largest Pacific port.
“These soldiers then headed to multiple Russian military training ranges in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training,” Kirby said Wednesday. “It remains to be seen whether these soldiers will join the Russian army in combat, but this is certainly a very worrying possibility.”
He added that if they deploy to fight Ukraine, “they’re a fair fight.”
North Korea is also suspected of exporting ballistic missiles and artillery shells that have already been found detonated on mainland Ukraine.
Kirillo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told US news outlet The War Zone that 11,000 North Korean infantry soldiers are training in eastern Russia and will be sent to Ukraine. .
“It will be ready by November 1,” he said, adding that the first troops of 2,600 troops would be sent to fight the Ukrainian counter-invasion in Kursk.
North Korean soldiers will use Russian weapons and ammunition, he said.
(Al Jazeera)
This number is similar to the number announced by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) on October 18th. Yonhap News reported that the National Intelligence Service has learned that North Korea recently decided to send four brigades worth 12,000 troops to Ukraine.
This is also the number that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy mentioned in his speech on Tuesday night. “There is information that two military units from North Korea are undergoing training. There could be two brigades of 6,000 soldiers each.”
A week ago, President Zelensky told Kiev’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, that in addition to fighting, North Koreans were also replacing Russian factory workers conscripted into the fight.
“The Putin state-criminal coalition now includes North Korea,” he said.
The NIS said it monitored the first wave of 1,500 soldiers being transported to Vladivostok on four amphibious ships from October 8 to 13.
The officials said Russian troops were stationed at bases in Russian ports and north in Ussuriysk, Khabarovsk and Blagoveshchensk. They reportedly received training in Russian weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Russia may be trying to cover up North Korea’s military involvement.
According to the National Intelligence Service, North Koreans were issued with “fake identification cards from the Republics of Yakutia and Buryatia that resemble those of North Koreans.” They appear to have disguised themselves as Russian soldiers to hide the fact that they were sent to the battlefield.”
The National Intelligence Service also estimated that North Korea sent 13,000 containers containing artillery shells, anti-tank rockets, and missiles. Both Ukrainian and U.S. defense intelligence agencies confirmed the presence of North Korean missile debris in Ukraine.
(Al Jazeera)
South Korea has indicated in the past that it may turn to actively supporting offensive weapons to Ukraine if North Korea becomes involved in a war on Russia’s side.
On Monday, Russia’s ambassador to Seoul sought to assure that cooperation between Russia and North Korea “does not go against the security interests of the Republic of Korea.”
If confirmed, the presence of North Koreans as combatants would likely indicate that Russia is not as well-resourced as it claims. Russia has fought the war with volunteers and contract soldiers, often from former Soviet states, and has avoided formal Russian conscription.
Last week, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that this year’s military staffing plan had been achieved by 78%, state news agency TASS reported.
“Overall, this percentage is quite good,” Medvedev said.
Soldiers from the Da Vinci Wolves separate mechanized battalion, named after the youngest battalion commander in the Ukrainian army, Dmytro Kotsiubairo, launch a combat drone at a forward position near the town of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region (Vycheslav Latin Ski/Reuters)
But the numbers Russia needs to maintain the pace of its offensive operations are staggering.
For example, Ukraine has estimated over 1,300 Russian casualties per day throughout the past week, and claims over 600,000 Russian casualties for the entire war.
Although Al Jazeera cannot verify these claims, Medvedev said the Russian military employed 190,000 contract fighters in the first half of this year alone.
Russia has also lost a significant amount of equipment.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said Russia had lost at least 9,000 tanks, 18,000 armored fighting vehicles and 19,500 artillery systems by mid-October.
Oryx, an independent open source information platform, confirmed losses of 3,500 tanks and more than 7,300 armored vehicles of various types.
(Al Jazeera)
Lloyd Austin estimates that the war has cost Russia more than $200 billion so far.
Ukrainian National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk said the Russian military had increased its use of armored vehicles and tanks in recent days to take advantage of unseasonably dry weather before the onset of winter.
Ukraine has recorded a high frequency of daily attacks in the eastern region of Donetsk over the past week, with Russian forces particularly concentrated in Krahov and Pokrovsk.
These are towns to the west of Avdiivka that Russian forces seized in February and sought to gain advantage as Ukrainian forces struggled to establish new lines of defense. In recent months, Russian forces have established a salient 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Avdiivka.
The Institute for War Studies, a Washington-based think tank, said, “In the last week alone, we observed three battalion-sized mechanized attacks in western Donetsk Oblast. The tempo was remarkable because ISW was only observing Russian military reports. It was increasing.” From late July to early October 2024, a four-battalion mechanized attack was carried out in eastern Ukraine. ”
Ukraine responded with solid defenses, with no new cities falling to Russian forces in the past week. Consistent with this year’s policy, China is trying to bring the war to Russian territory with deep attacks.
The country’s security and military intelligence officials said Sunday that a drone struck the Sverdlov weapons factory in the city of Dzerzhinsk in Nizhny Novgorod, 900 kilometers from Ukraine.
According to Western intelligence, it is one of Russia’s largest military factories, producing explosives, artillery shells, glide bombs, and anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles.
On the same day, Ukrainian drones attacked the Lipetsk 2 air base, causing a secondary explosion.
On Friday night, Ukraine attacked the Kremny El factory in Bryansk.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Combating Disinformation, said the factory is one of Russia’s largest microelectronics factories, producing chips and circuits for the Iskander missile, Pantsir air defense system, drones, radar and electronic warfare systems. He said he is providing it.
This is the second major attack by Ukrainian drones on Russian assets in 10 days. On October 9 and 10, Ukraine attacked the Feodosia oil depot in occupied Crimea, the Shahed drone depot in Yeisk, and the Khanskaya airfield in Adyghe.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a diplomatic offensive on Tuesday and Wednesday, welcoming 36 world leaders to Kazan in southwestern Russia. His scheduled high-level talks included South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi.
President Putin called Sino-Russian relations “a model for how relations between countries should be built in the modern world.”
(Al Jazeera)
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