Zelenskyy urged allies to take action before North Korean troops reach the Ukrainian front

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged his allies to stop “standing by” and take steps before North Korean troops deployed in Russia reach the battlefield, and the country’s army chief warned that its forces are facing “one of the most powerful offensives” from Moscow since all-out war began more than two years ago.

Zelenskyy raised the prospect of a pre-emptive Ukrainian strike on camps where North Korean troops are trained and said Kiev knows their location. But he said Ukraine cannot do this without permission from allies to use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia.

“But instead… America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean army to start attacking Ukrainians too,” Zelenskyy said in a message on the Telegram messaging app late Friday.

The Biden administration said Thursday that about 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia’s Kursk region, near the Ukrainian border, preparing to help the Kremlin battle Ukrainian forces in the coming days.

On Saturday, Ukraine’s military intelligence said more than 7,000 North Koreans equipped with Russian equipment and weapons had been transported to areas near Ukraine. The agency, known by its acronym GUR, said North Korean troops were being trained at five locations in the Russian Far East. The source of the information was not specified.

Western leaders have described the North Korean troop deployment as a significant escalation that could also shake up relations in the Indo-Pacific region and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could address the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program could increase. .

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui met her Russian counterpart in Moscow on Friday.

Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly said they need permission to use Western weapons to attack weapons depots, airfields and military bases far from the border to motivate Russia to seek peace. In response, US defense officials have argued that the number of missiles is limited and that Ukraine is already using its own long-range drones to hit targets further into Russia.

Moscow has also consistently indicated that it would consider such strikes a major escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would be “at war” with the US and NATO states if they approved it.

Ukraine is facing “one of the most powerful” Russian offensives since the start of the war

Zelenskiy’s call came shortly before Ukraine’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrskiy, said on Saturday that his forces are struggling to halt “one of Russia’s most powerful offensives” since the all-out invasion of its southern neighbor in February 2022.

Writing on Telegram after a phone call with a top Czech official, Syrskyi hinted that Ukrainian units are suffering heavy losses in the fighting, which he said “requires constant renewal of resources.”

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Although Syrskyi did not specify where the heavy fighting took place, Russia has been waging a ferocious campaign along Ukraine’s eastern front for months, gradually forcing Kiev to surrender ground. But Moscow is struggling to push Ukrainian forces out of the Kursk border area after an incursion nearly three months ago.

Dozens injured in Russian attacks on Ukraine

Russian missiles struck Ukraine’s second-largest city on Saturday night, killing a police officer and wounding dozens, local governor Oleh Syniehubov said. According to Syniehubov and Ukraine’s National Police, one rocket struck a place where a large group of police officers had gathered, killing a 40-year-old soldier and wounding 36 others.

In Ukraine’s southern Kherson province, Russian shelling killed a 40-year-old woman and wounded three others, including two children, on Saturday, local governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. According to local Ukrainian authorities, another resident of Kherson was injured in a drone strike later that day.

Another five civilians, including two children, were injured after Russia attacked Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, Governor Serhii Lysak said.

In Kiev, air raid sirens blared for more than five hours on Saturday morning as Russian drones rained down on the capital, sparking a fire in a downtown office building and injuring two people, the city’s military administration said.

In total, Russian forces attacked Ukraine overnight with more than 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday. It said most were shot down or sent off course using GPS jamming. Falling debris damaged power grids and residential buildings in several provinces and injured an elderly woman near Kiev, officials said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry hinted that Russia’s drone campaign was slowing, saying Moscow launched just over half as many drones in October as the month before.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that its forces shot down 24 Ukrainian drones overnight over four Russian regions and occupied Crimea. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

In another development, four civilians were injured after a Ukrainian attack in Russia’s southern Kursk region, Governor Aleksei Smirnov said, without specifying what weapon was used. Moscow is still trying to drive Ukrainian forces out of the province, months after they carried out a daring attack that roiled the Kremlin and marked the biggest assault on Russia since World War II.