Ukraine mobilizes against Russian advances and threat of North Korean reinforcements

Photo: Efrem Lukatsk Associated Press Ukrainian servicemen from the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade on the front line near Vovchansk, Kharkiv region, Ukraine

Ania Tsoukanova – Agence France-Presse and Stanislav Doshchitsyn – Agence France-Presse in kyiv

Published yesterday at 16:41 Updated yesterday at 19:27

• Europe

Ukraine announced Tuesday a new mobilization of 160,000 men, faced with accelerating Russian advances, while the United States confirmed Tuesday for the first time the presence of a “small number” of North Korean soldiers in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering Ukraine.

In addition to the capture of the eastern city of Selydove by Russia, Washington has confirmed a deployment of North Korean troops on the border with Ukraine.

There are “indications that a small number are already in the Kursk region, with another 2,000 or so” on the way, Pentagon spokesman Gen. Pat Ryder said at a briefing.

“We are concerned that they intend to use these forces in combat against the Ukrainians, or at least support combat operations against the Ukrainians in the Kursk region,” the spokesman added.

10,000 North Korean troops already in Russia

A total of 10,000 North Korean troops are in Russia, according to the Pentagon.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte had already declared on Monday that he “confirmed that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and that North Korean military units have been deployed in the Kursk region”, denouncing a “significant escalation” and a “dangerous expansion” of the war.

But this deployment also proves the “growing disarray” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, added the head of the Atlantic Alliance.

Russia conducted new nuclear military exercises on Tuesday under the supervision of Vladimir Putin, who had recently raised the possibility of using these weapons in the context of the conflict in Ukraine and with the West.

Faced with a less well-equipped Ukrainian army lacking in men, the Russian forces, despite significant losses, have been multiplying their successes in recent years. weeks.

On Tuesday, they claimed the conquest of Selydove, which had some 20,000 inhabitants before the war, a significant advance near Pokrovsk, a logistical crossroads in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk, in the east of the country.

The conquest of the eastern regions of Ukraine was defined as the “priority” by Vladimir Putin in this invasion launched in February 2022 by the Russian army which had then failed to take kyiv, the capital, and had then been pushed back to the east.

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The Russian Ministry of Defense also announced the capture of three localities in the area: Guirnyk, Katerynivka and Bogoyavlenka.

Russia has regained the initiative for about a year now in the face of Ukrainian troops handicapped by a lack of men, equipment and Western procrastination over the use and extent of military aid provided.

To counter it, kyiv will mobilize at least 160,000 additional soldiers, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, told MPs.

According to him, this will make it possible to replenish the ranks of the army by 85%, while since the start of the invasion, “a total of 1.050 million citizens have been enlisted.”

This mobilization should be spread over the next three months, a source within the security sector told AFP.

The Russian army has advanced by 478 km2 in Ukraine since the beginning of October, its largest territorial gain in a month since March 2022 and the first weeks of the conflict, according to a AFP analysis Monday based on data from the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

War is “internationalizing”

In August, Ukraine tried to force Russia to divert some of its forces from the Donetsk region by attacking and occupying part of Russia’s Kursk border region further north.

But that gamble appears to have failed, and now, according to Western sources, kyiv and Seoul, Russia has been reinforced by thousands of North Korean troops as Moscow has forged an increasingly close alliance with Pyongyang.

North Korea has long been accused of massively supplying Russia with weapons, but involving its troops in the fighting would constitute yet another escalation in the worst conflict in Europe since World War II.

This topic was at the heart of the telephone conversation on Tuesday between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his South Korean counterpart Yoon Suk Yeol. “We have come to the same conclusion: this war is becoming international,” Zelensky, who is traveling to Iceland, said on Telegram.

The Pentagon said Monday that North Korea had sent about 10,000 troops to train in eastern Russia, which will “likely” result in “a buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine in the coming weeks.”

A delegation from South Korea — a major arms producer — is scheduled to visit Ukraine this week, according to media reports, with the aim of “intensifying the exchange” between kyiv and Seoul, Zelensky said.

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Strikes on Ukrainian cities

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui was in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East on Tuesday and is expected in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Russian news agencies.

And Russia sent yet another message to its adversaries by announcing Tuesday evening that it had conducted new nuclear military exercises.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it had “fully achieved” its objectives, particularly with “ballistic missile and missile launches” cruise”.

The Russian army continues to bombard civilian areas in Ukraine.

A Russian airstrike in Kharkiv, the country's second city in the northeast, killed at least four people early Tuesday, its mayor said.

In the southern city of Kherson, two people were killed, the city council said, and another person was killed in the neighboring Odessa region.

The capital, kyiv, was also targeted by an explosive drone attack overnight, but all were shot down, authorities said.