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South Korea, Ukraine and the US previously accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia
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US officials have claimed that North Korea is suffering mass casualties on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine, as Biden pushes to send a £1bn boost to Kyiv.
White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday that thousands of North Korean troops had been killed or wounded in the last week alone.
“It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses,” Kirby said.
South Korea, Ukraine and the US previously accused Pyongyang of sending thousands of soldiers to help Russia fight off the Ukrainian invasion of the Kursk border region.
It comes as the White House is expected to announced it will send £1bn in military assistance to Ukraine, officials said, as Biden pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office in January.
The large package of aid, which is expected to be announced on Monday, is said to include a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system.
Ukraine is planning to open more than 150 underground educational facilities by September of 2025, deputy education minister Nadiia Kuzmychova said at a briefing yesterday.
Officials in the war-hit country have initiated plans to build 139 underground schools and several dozen underground vocational education institutions, the minister said.
There are currently 79 underground education facilities under active construction and construction is ongoing in frontline regions and areas most affected by Russian shelling, the deputy education minister said.
“We expect the construction of absolutely all facilities to be completed by September 1, 2025,” Ms Kuzmychova said.
Ukraine had to switch to underground schools after the country came under the Russian aerial attacks, which target civilian infrastructure, including education facilities and have claimed thousands of lives so far.
Ukraine is facing an array of issues heading into 2025, underscored by the anxiety of what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for the country’s future. Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what next year could look like
Ukraine is facing an array of issues heading into 2025, underscored by the anxiety of what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for the country’s future. Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what next year could look like
Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied and demoralised by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk, a region some want to hold at all costs while others question the value of having gone in at all.
Battles are so intense that some Ukrainian commanders can’t evacuate the dead. Communication lags and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have little way to counterattack, seven frontline soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity so they could discuss sensitive operations.
Since being caught unaware by the lightning Ukrainian incursion, Russia has amassed more than 50,000 troops in the region, including some from its ally North Korea. Precise numbers are hard to obtain, but Moscow’s counterattack has killed and wounded thousands and the overstretched Ukrainians have lost more then 40 per cent of the 984 sq km (380 sq miles) of Kursk they seized in August.
Five months after their shock offensive into Russia, Ukrainian troops are bloodied by daily combat losses and demoralized by the rising risk of defeat in Kursk
The man was rescued deep in the freezing mountains of Romania
After nearly three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the future of the country’s fight against Vladimir Putin’s forces is more uncertain than ever.
Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential race, off the back of promises to end the war in Eastern Europe in 24 hours – seemingly even if that means forcing Kyiv to cede territory to Russia – appears to spell the end of the West’s long-held policy of helping Ukraine to defeat Putin entirely. Negotiations with Russia, after years of silence, are back on the agenda.
This is causing significant stress in Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada. As Kira Rudik, a Ukrainian opposition leader, puts it: “The world needs to understand how crucial it is not to end the war on any idea of negotiating with Russia.”
Ukraine is facing an array of issues heading into 2025, underscored by anxiety about what the re-election of Donald Trump could mean for the country’s future. Tom Watling speaks to politicians, military experts and aid workers to discover what next year could hold
In the two years since its formation, Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Brigade – called “Khartiya” – has gained a reputation not only for prowess in battle but also for its culture of respect and innovative approach to technology.
Khartiya helped to halt Russian forces who launched a surprise incursion last May that threatened to overwhelm Kharkiv, from where many of its original members come.
The brigade was deployed to confront the Russian incursion around the village of Lyptsi, north of Ukraine’s second-largest city, last June; the forested area has since been a pivotal battleground.
In the forests near Kharkiv, Askold Krushelnycky speaks to soldiers spending Christmas fighting a hi-tech battle against Vladimir Putin’s forces
Ukrainian military chief Oleksandr Syrskyi says the fight to hold the eastern region of Dontesk has become ‘extremely tough’
China’s president Xi Jinping will visit Russia in 2025, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency quoted Moscow’s ambassador to Beijing as saying.
“As for concrete bilateral events, I can say that the appropriate plans are actively being drawn up,” Ambassador Igor Morgulov told RIA yesterday.
“What can be said that is no secret, in terms of priority, is that the chairman of the People’s Republic of China is expected in Russia next year.”
At a regular press conference, China’s foreign ministry did not confirm the visit, but reiterated that the two countries maintained close contacts at all levels.
Russian president Vladimir Putin visited China in February 2022, proclaiming a “no limits” partnership days before he sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. He was in Beijing again last May, after his re-election by a landslide, welcoming a “new era” of relations focusing on opposition to US policy.
Russia has warned it “rules out nothing” regarding nuclear testing in response to Donald Trump’s “radical” position on the issue during his first term as president.
Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees arms control, warned the United States that its nuclear arsenal is intended to “sober up” countries on the “brink of direct armed conflict” with Russia.
Russia, the US and China are all undertaking major modernisations of their nuclear weapons just as the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) of the Cold War era between the Soviet Union and the US is starting to fall apart.
Ministers warned the US that its nuclear arsenal is intended to ‘sober up’ countries on the ‘brink of direct armed conflict’ with Russia
South Korea’s spy agency said that a North Korean soldier who was captured alive in Ukraine has died from his injuries, the Yonhap news agency reported.
Yonhap earlier reported yesterday that the agency had confirmed that a North Korean soldier dispatched to fight for Russia had been captured by Ukrainian forces.
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