Thread: Russia launches Ukraine invasion

NATO’s newest members update their civil preparedness guides for risk of war

Sweden and Finland, which recently gave up neutrality and joined NATO following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sent out updated civil preparedness guides on Monday with instructions how to survive in war.


The guides are similar to those in Denmark and Norway, though none mentions Russia by name.


In January, Sweden’s former military commander-in-chief Gen. Micael Bydén said it openly: Swedes should mentally prepare for the possibility of war. Sweden in March formally joined NATO as the 32nd member of the transatlantic military alliance, nearly a year after Finland.


The updated Swedish guide explains how to respond to an attack with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons: “Take cover in the same way as with an airstrike. Shelters provide the best protection. After a couple days, the radiation has decreased sharply.”

“It is no secret that the security situation has deteriorated since the previous brochure was issued in 2018,” Civil Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told a press conference last month. The Swedish Baltic Sea island of Gotland sits a little more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) from the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.

In Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border with Russia, the guide is compiled by the government, which has stressed that “preparedness is a civic skill in the current global situation.”


The Nordic countries all urge people to stockpile drinking water, canned food, medicine, heating, toilet paper, money and flashlights and candles. And if possible, keep the car fully refueled.


The checklist also includes iodine tablets, in case of a nuclear event.


NATO'''s newest members update their civil preparedness guides for risk of war | AP News

Ukraine is being hit with a surge of attacks using North Korean missiles. Western components help make it possible

Ukraine has been hit by a surge in Russian ballistic missile attacks, about a third of which used North Korean weapons that can only fly because they run on Western circuitry, obtained despite sanctions, according to Ukrainian military officials.


Russia has fired about 60 North Korean KN-23 missiles at Ukraine this year, according to a Ukrainian defense official. That accounts for nearly one in three of the 194 ballistic missiles fired so far in 2024, a CNN tally of attacks publicly acknowledged by Ukraine’s air force shows.


August and September saw a spike in ballistic missile attacks, when Ukraine first publicly detailed the use of the KN-23.


“We see that since the spring, Russia has been using ballistic missiles and attack drones much more to strike Ukraine. And less use of cruise missiles,” the acting head of communications of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ignat, told CNN.


These less-sophisticated missiles are part of North Korea’s growing support to Moscow, which also includes about 11,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia’s Kursk region.


As the expanding role of the North Korean missiles becomes clear, Ukrainian officials have given CNN rare access to fragments from the wreckage of the weapons, which show the apparent extent of US- and European-made or designed circuitry in their guidance systems.

MORE Ukraine is being hit with a surge of attacks using North Korean missiles. Western components help make it possible | CNN

Former British soldier ‘fighting for Ukraine is captured by Russian forces’

A British man who was fighting for Ukraine has been captured by Russian forces, according to reports.


Describing himself as a former British Army soldier, the man identifies himself as James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, in a video that was first posted on Telegram before being widely circulated on Sunday.


Russian state news agency Tass reported that a military source said a “UK mercenary” had been “taken prisoner in the Kursk area” of Russia.

The UK Foreign Office told The Independent it was “supporting the family of a British man following reports of his detention”.


The man in the footage is dressed in combat fatigues and speaks with an English accent while appearing to have his hands tied.

He said to the camera: “I was in the British Army before, from 2019 to 2023, 22 Signal Regiment. Just a private. I was a signalman. One Signal Brigade, 22 Signal Regiment, 252 Squadron.”


He explained that he signed up to fight for Ukraine’s International Legion after losing his job.


“When I left, I got fired from my job, I applied on the International Legion webpage. I had just lost everything. I just lost my job,” he said.


“I see it on the TV,” he added, shaking his head. “It was a stupid idea.”


He described how he had travelled to Ukraine from Britain, saying: “I flew to Krakow, Poland, from London Luton. Bus from there to Medyka in Poland, on the Ukraine border.”

The UK Ministry of Defence has declined to comment at this stage.

Former British soldier ‘fighting for Ukraine is captured by Russian forces’ | The Independent

US official confirms North Korean casualties in Russia’s Kursk

A U.S. official confirmed to RFA Korean service that North Korean troops deployed in Russia have suffered casualties, the first U.S. confirmation after media reported that 500 North Koreans had been killed in a Ukrainian attack with British missiles last week.


The unidentified official from the U.S. Department of Defense familiar with the situation said casualties among North Korean troops have occurred in the Kursk region of Russia, adding that it was caused by an airstrike by the Ukrainian army, RFA Korean reported on Tuesday.


Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said earlier that the Defense Department could not independently confirm reports about North Korean casualties, although South Korea’s main security agency said it had “specific intelligence” that North Korean forces in Russia had suffered casualties. It did not provide any estimated toll.


Videos circulated by pro-Russian war bloggers indicated that up to 12 British Storm Shadow missiles struck a target believed to be a command headquarters in the village of Maryno on Wednesday last week.


The site might have been used by North Korean and Russian officers, the defense news publisher Global Defense Corp reported, adding that 500 North Koreans had been killed in a Ukrainian attack.


Separately, The Wall Street Journal, citing Western officials, said the attack on the command headquarters also killed one high-level North Korean official.


The U.S. and South Korea have said that North Korean troops had been fighting in Kursk against Ukrainian forces who occupied parts of the Russian region in early August. The U.S. has estimated that more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to Kursk and they had begun combat operations alongside Russian forces.


Neither Russia nor North Korea have confirmed the presence of North Korean troops.

Ukraine envoys in South Korea


Special envoys from Ukraine, led by its defense minister Rustem Umerov, arrived in Seoul on Wednesday to meet South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol, media reported.


They are expected to share information about the North Korean deployment and request arms support for Ukraine, Yonhap News Agency reported.


Yoon previously said that while Seoul had provided humanitarian and economic support to Ukraine, in line with a South Korean convention of not supplying arms to active conflict zones, the situation has changed with the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.


Russia warned that it would respond strongly if South Korea supplies weapons to Ukraine, saying it would “fully destroy relations between the two countries.”

Access Denied

Zelensky says he would be willing to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia to achieve peace.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday night that he was willing to cede territory to Russia to end the war for the first time.


The Ukrainian president said his country could give up land temporarily in exchange for a “Nato umbrella” over the territory Ukraine still holds.


He added that after a ceasefire was agreed, Kyiv could “diplomatically” negotiate the return of the territory in the east that is currently under Russian control.


“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] Nato umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky said in an interview with Sky News.


“That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he added.


The comments represent a considerable shift in his position. Kyiv has previously said it would continue to fight Russia until Ukraine was returned to its internationally recognised borders, which include the four regions annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2022, as well as Crimea.

MORE Access Denied

Zelensky talking sense at last, or at least being pragmatic about the current situation.

Yes but like yielding a child in a bitter divorce will leave resentment, Unless rump Ukraine get absolute NATO guarantee , it may just be the first mouthful Putin gobbles , coming back for more a terribvle sign to alldictators and bullies that the West is all talk and wont bleed to defend democracy.

If Putin thought Germany France were sending a million young to his meat grinder all sides might think twice. as for his nuclear blackmail time to remove him via any means possible, the worst victims of his brutality have been the Russian people esp the dead conscripts.

Originally Posted by misskit

Zelensky says he would be willing to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia to achieve peace.

has someone told bsnub this?

Originally Posted by Molle

has someone told bsnub this?

I can read you idiot.

Originally Posted by bsnub

I can read you idiot.

Every prediction you made about this war was wrong.

You are a complete arse.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Every prediction you made about this war was wrong.

I have been right more times than I have been wrong you blathering idiot. It was you that claimed that Ukraine was "losing" the war, and it had "lost" after only a few months. A sample of just how big a clueless idiot you were then and still are today...

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Says the man who claims Ukraine is winning

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Yep I am on the side of reality, and unfortunately Ukraine are losing.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Now when are you going to accept the reality that Ukraine are not winning.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

the Ukraine has virtually no chance against a superior force in numbers and equipment.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

Who’s winning now on planet Bsnub?

Originally Posted by Iceman123

here on earth Ukraine are losing for sure.

Originally Posted by Iceman123

I will repeat to try to get it to sink in “Russia is winning”

Now you just show up in these threads to take potshots at me because you are a butthurt old man who knows he made a fool of himself.

‘Catastrophic.’ With Mines, Drones, Artillery And Tanks, Ukrainian Troops Wreck 90 Russian Vehicles Across Four Square Miles Of Kursk.


A four-square-mile patch of Kursk Oblast in western Russia is a graveyard for Russian vehicles—and a harbinger of a looming catastrophe for the Kremlin as its yearlong offensive in Ukraine begins to falter.

Kriegsforscher, a Ukrainian marine corps drone operator supporting the 20,000-strong Ukrainian force that has held a 20-by-12-mile salient in Kursk since August, tallied around 90 wrecked and abandoned Russian vehicles just in his two-by-two-mile sector on the northwest edge of the salient.

That’s an entire brigade’s worth of vehicles. Ukrainian losses in the same sector have been much lighter: just 20 or so.

A four-to-one loss ratio in favor of Ukraine isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s only slightly higher than the overall 3:1 loss ratio for the whole 34-month wider war on Ukraine: 14,500 destroyed Russian vehicles against 5,200 destroyed Ukrainian vehicles.

What’s notable, and ominous for the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is when and where the Russian armed forces lost all those vehicles. They’re what the Russians have left behind in two waves of unsuccessful attacks on the Ukrainian salient in Kursk over a period of six weeks starting in early November.

A year after Ukraine’s summer 2023 counteroffensive ground to a halt and Russia launched its own new offensive, Kursk has arguably become the locus of the fighting—although, to be clear, fierce battles continue to rage in and around Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Vovchansk, Kurakhove, Vuhledar and other cities and towns in eastern Ukraine.

Putin has given his forces until February to eliminate the Ukrainian salient in Kursk, and for good reason. The Russian regime anticipates the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will mark a new and volatile era in U.S. relations with Ukraine.

Trump has pledged to cut off U.S. aid to Ukraine while also leaning on Kyiv to accept peace terms favoring Moscow. Some of Trump’s closest advisors have openly disparaged Ukraine. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reasserted Ukraine’s independence in a social media post on Nov. 16, billionaire Elon Musk—who spent $250 million boosting Trump’s campaign—mocked Zelensky for having an “amazing” “sense of humor.”

Whatever happens after Jan. 20, Putin wants to be fully in control of Russian territory as the politics play out. It’s for that reason the Kremlin massed 60,000 Russian and North Korean troops and some of the Russia-North Korea alliance’s best heavy weapons in Kursk—and began hurling them at the salient two days after Trump was elected on Nov. 5.

The initial wave of Russian assaults ran into a wall of Ukrainian mines, drones, tanks and artillery on and around a road threading past the hamlet of Zelenyi Shylakh, the site of a recent Russian war crime. The attacks slowed as November turned to December, but only so the Russian regiments and brigades could receive replacement troops and vehicles. “It’s only a warm up before the show,” Kriegsforscher noted on Nov. 29.

The second Russian wave crashed against the salient starting on Saturday. It was no more successful than the wave that preceded it. Kriegforscher’s drone team alone claimed it knocked out 10 Russian vehicles.

The human toll has been equally staggering. The Russians have been losing between 1,200 and 2,000 troops killed and wounded every day for weeks, exceeding by a large margin the roughly 30,000 fresh troops the Kremlin mobilizes every month. Without those thousands of North Korean reinforcements, the Russian military would be shrinking by potentially thousands of people a week.

While Russian forces have recently advanced short distances on the northern edge of the Kursk salient as well in eastern Ukraine, these modest gains belie the Russians’ increasingly precarious position.

“I personally see these advances as largely a failure of the Russian military,” analyst Andrew Perpetua wrote. “They are dumping entire divisions directly into combat and advancing a few [kilometers] while sustaining absolutely catastrophic casualties.”

“The way Russia is using their forces is unsustainable,” Perpetua observed.

Whether and when the Russian field armies in eastern Ukraine and Kursk may collapse is difficult to predict. That they’re on track for eventual collapse is apparent. And when armies fail, they tend to fail quickly and totally—just ask Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, whose own army is in full retreat just a few days after opposition groups launched a coordinated offensive.

If anything could reverse Russia’s fading fortunes, it would be an abrupt end of U.S. aid to Ukraine early next year. Kyiv has been struggling to boost military recruitment, stiffen its forces’ defensive earthworks, reform archaic command staffs and boost the output of Ukrainian arms factories.

A new round of U.S. aid totaling $61 billion this year has helped the Ukrainians fight on despite these internal crises. But “Ukraine absolutely must fix those issues before this aid package runs out,” Perpetua warned. “Because there may never be another.”

The Ukrainians have as many reasons to be optimistic as the Russians have reasons to be pessimistic, however. Internal reforms might take effect. U.S. aid could continue to flow, albeit probably under new and stricter terms. The Trump administration may soon learn what other Western governments already understand: that Putin’s regime isn’t genuinely interested in a lasting peace.

Meanwhile, the Russians could continue losing people and vehicles at rates they can’t sustain, all for slight territorial gains that aren’t remotely worth the cost.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...iles-of-kursk/

N.Korean troops join Russian assaults in significant numbers, Kyiv says

Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold an enclave in Russia's Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday.


The Ukrainian leader said the more active use of the troops was a new escalation in the war and called for a global response, as Donald Trump's return to the White House next month fuels speculation of a coming push for peace talks.


"Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them," Zelenskiy told Ukrainians in his daily wartime address.


The North Koreans were being used in combined Russian units and only on the Kursk front for now, he said, adding: "We have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the front line."


Kyiv first said North Korean forces turned up in Russia's Kursk region in October and later reported unspecified clashes and casualties. It estimates there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, adding to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side.


Ukraine, nearly a fifth of which is occupied by Moscow's troops, launched an incursion into Russia's western Kursk region in August, carving out an enclave that it said could be used as a bargaining chip in any talks to end the war.


Ukraine has battled to hold the area, although some Western military analysts have questioned the incursion's rationale, arguing it has extended an already-sprawling front line, exposing Ukraine's manpower weakness as it battles a larger foe.


Kyiv said the operation sought to divert Russian forces, but it has not stopped Moscow notching up its fastest gains in the east since 2022, although Russian forces have taken heavy casualties, according to Kyiv and the West.


POTENTIAL ENDGAME


Ukraine's General Staff reported a significant increase in the number of Russian assaults on the Kursk front, along with airstrikes, glide bomb raids and more than 200 artillery attacks.


Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, said the North Koreans had taken losses, but provided no numbers.


"The Russians are counting on numbers and are trying to carry out assault operations with the help of the Koreans, when the task of the Koreans is to run under the blows of our forces and occupy certain areas," Kovalenko wrote on Telegram.


As Trump's return has put the focus on a potential endgame in the war, Kyiv has urged the West to put it into a stronger position and bridled at fears of escalation, a line echoed by Zelenskiy as he denounced North Korea's role in the fighting.


"In essence, Moscow has dragged another state into this war, and to the fullest extent possible. And if this is not escalation, then what is the escalation that so many have been talking about?" Zelenskiy said.


He used his address to issue a fresh appeal to his allies to strengthen their support for Kyiv, something he said he would discuss with European powers next week.


Zelenskiy plans to attend a meeting with the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, NATO, and the EU in Brussels on Wednesday.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/war-and-co...ys/ar-AA1vRLGd

This Danish fellow has an interesting analysis of the possible cease-fire and peace negotiations.


Quick synopsis for those who don't want to watch:
Big Russian win = Ukraine doesn't join NATO or the EU and Russia keeps the captured territories.
Lesser Russian win = Ukraine doesn't join NATO or the EU and Russia give up some of the captured territories.
Still a win for Russia = Ukraine doesn't join NATO or the EU and Russia gives up all of the captured territories.
Russian loss = Ukraine joins NATO and/or the EU. The captured territories are a secondary matter.

Ukraine Says It Killed Senior Russian General in Moscow Scooter Bombing

Igor Kirillov is suspected by Ukraine of ordering the use of banned chemical weapons

Ukraine carried out one of its most audacious operations on Russian soil early Tuesday, killing the commander of the unit designed to protect Russia’s troops from chemical, radiological and biological attack, by blowing up a scooter on the snowy streets of Moscow.


Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov is the most senior commander to be killed in the heart of the Russian capital since the start of the war in Ukraine. The head of the Russian Armed Forces’ Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, Kirillov was killed outside a residential building along with his assistant, Russian law-enforcement authorities said.


Ukrainian officials said the killing was a special operation by the Security Service of Ukraine, the country’s primary domestic intelligence agency, known as the SBU.


Kyiv has sought to use targeted attacks against Russian military commanders, prominent pro-war figures and military installations far from the front to gain an edge in the nearly three-year-old war with its giant neighbor that has left tens of thousands dead and destroyed several Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian forces have been accused of using drones to attack the Kremlin as well as planting explosive devices and using close-range gunfire to target high-profile figures in Russia.


Russian authorities classified Kirillov’s killing as an act of terror.

After the explosion, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said Kyiv was trying to “prolong the war and death” and promised “inevitable retribution,” according to state newswire TASS. “Law-enforcement agencies must find the killers in Russia and everything must be done to destroy those who ordered it who are in Kyiv,” Medvedev said, blaming Ukraine’s military and political leadership for the attack.


The U.S. had no previous knowledge of the operation, according to a Pentagon official.


“The United States was not aware of the operation in advance and we do not support or enable these kinds of activities,” said Pentagon spokesperson Air Force Maj. Gen Pat Ryder.


On Monday, a day before his killing, the SBU named Kirillov as a suspect in an investigation of war crimes, for allegedly ordering the use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine.


“By order of Kirillov, more than 4,800 cases of enemy use of chemical weapons have been recorded since the beginning of the full-scale war,” the service said.


Russia has denied U.S. accusations that it violated a chemical-weapons ban in Ukraine.

The early morning attack Tuesday was captured on video apparently filmed from a vehicle parked nearby. The footage, shown to The Wall Street Journal by the SBU, shows two people emerging from a building that has a scooter parked just outside. Moments later, an explosion obscures the camera’s view.


TASS cited investigators as saying that a video camera had been installed in a car-sharing vehicle, which was parked near the building and used to monitor Kirillov.

Ukraine is suspected of being behind the assassinations of a top Russian missile scientist, a pro-Moscow former Ukrainian lawmaker and a prominent nationalist war blogger. In 2022, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Kyiv was responsible for the killing of Daria Dugina, the daughter of a prominent far-right Russian ideologue.


Ukraine has at times recruited people inside Russia who have shown a willingness to aid the Ukrainian cause, and given them detailed instructions on how to orchestrate attacks. Tuesday’s attack had the hallmarks of a higher-level operation.


In October, the U.K. sanctioned Kirillov for overseeing the deployment of “barbaric chemical weapons in Ukraine.”


“Russia’s cruel and inhumane tactics on the battlefield are abhorrent and I will use the full arsenal of powers at my disposal to combat Russia’s malign activity,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said at the time.


The U.K. also said Kirillov had been a “significant mouthpiece for Kremlin disinformation” and had been spreading lies to mask Russia’s behavior.

In 2022, Kirillov claimed that Kyiv could detonate a dirty bomb and blame its actions on Russian aggression—in what analysts said was an effort to rally domestic support for the Kremlin’s military campaign in Ukraine. Kyiv denied any such plans.


On Tuesday, the area around the building where the blast occurred was cordoned off by investigators and security forces were collecting surveillance-camera footage in nearby buildings, Russian authorities said.


The power of the explosive device, which was triggered remotely, was equivalent of one kilogram of the explosive TNT, TASS reported. The bomb was filled with shrapnel, it said.

The 54-year-old Kirillov had been in charge of the radiological and chemical defense troops since 2017 and took part in weapons development, according to Russian state media. The unit is a special force trained to mitigate the effects of radioactive, chemical and biological contamination, and protect against advanced weapons.


Russian officials were taken aback by the news of the blast.


“Shock. Irreparable loss,” Konstantin Kosachev, deputy speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, wrote on his Telegram channel. “The murderers will be punished. Without a doubt and without mercy.”

wsj.com

Originally Posted by misskit

Igor Kirillov is suspected by Ukraine of ordering the use of banned chemical weapons

During the day in the heart of Moscow. The Ukrainian intelligence services are really quite adept.

Originally Posted by bsnub

During the day in the heart of Moscow. The Ukrainian intelligence services are really quite adept.

Best enjoy it while they can.

Ukraine military drops leaflets urging North Korean troops to surrender

The Ukrainian military is dropping Korean-language leaflets urging North Korean troops fighting on Russia’s side of the war to “Surrender today and join South Korea tomorrow,” Radio Free Asia has learned.


The leaflets appear in a video shared on the Telegram social media website by InformNapalm, an organization that has been reporting on the situation in Ukraine.


Meanwhile, the Ukrainian website evocation.info also published on Telegram evidence that North Korean soldiers are provided with Russian ID, likely to hide their nationality in the event they are killed.


The two social media posts are among many reports of North Korean participation in the war, which Pyongyang and Moscow have not outwardly confirmed.

InformNapalm’s leaflet video shows a drone with a camera flying the leaflets over a wooded area. A caption in Ukrainian says, “Leaflets are dropped into the woods where North Korean soldiers are hiding.”


RFA previously reported that a similar type of drone engaged North Korean troops in a battle in the Kursk region, killing 50 of them.


But this time it was just leaflets. In addition to the “surrender” leaflet, there’s another that says “You’ve been sold!”

South Korean intelligence reported that Russia is paying every North Korean soldier about US$2,000 per month, but observers believe that just like North Korea’s dispatched workers, most of the money is likely sent to the cash-strapped North Korean government.


RFA has not independently verified the authenticity of the video.


According to InformNapalm, once North Korean soldiers surrender or are captured, their identities are protected and they are provided with support to go to South Korea to start a new life, but it acknowledged that it is still too early to tell how effective the leaflet campaign will be.

Meanwhile, a Russian military ID with a bullet hole and blood stains on it was found on a dead North Korean soldier in the Kursk region, the photo published by evocation.io purports to show.


The ID card is legible in the photo. It says the deceased soldier is Kim Kan-Bolat Albertovich, a native of Russia’s Tuva Republic, in southern Siberia, born on April 13, 1997.

RFA cannot independently verify the authenticity of the photo.


According to the ID, Pvt. Kim was allegedly born in the village of Bayan-Tala, graduated secondary school in 2016, worked as a roofer, and then entered military service in the Tuvan 55th Mountain Infantry Brigade.


But a person with that name and birthdate does not exist in Russian records, the evocation.io reported. The soldier’s Korean signature also appears on the first page, suggesting his real name is Ri Dae Hyok.


The document has more inconsistencies. It lacks photos, order numbers and official seals. Additionally, “Kim” has allegedly been a soldier since 2016, but he first received a weapon on Oct. 10, 2024, and a personal tag (AB-175311) a day later.


If legitimate, this photo would confirm what South Korean intelligence revealed in October, that North Korean troops sent to Russia were issued fake Russian identification cards that said they were residents of southern Siberia, which is home to a people who are racially similar to East Asians.


It is difficult to tell if the photo is legitimate or if it is propaganda, David Maxwell, vice president at the U.S.-based Center for Asia Pacific Strategy, told RFA.


“If Russia or North Korea is attempting to hide their soldiers’ identities, it makes no sense. They’ll inevitably be exposed,” Maxwell said. “It’s another foolish move by the Russians and North Koreans because when these soldiers are captured or killed, their identities will be revealed.”


He said it is already well known that North Korea is supporting Russia, so efforts to pass North Koreans off as a different Russian ethnic group was pointless.


“Maybe it makes them feel better, but I don’t find this very important or credible.”

Access Denied

Notebook found on North Korean soldier outlines tactics for countering drones


A North Korean soldier’s notebook described tactics for shooting down Ukrainian drones, including diagrams and details on how a three-person team should be used to lure and destroy the unmanned devices, the Ukrainian Special Forces said on Thursday on Telegram.


The notebook was found on a dead soldier named Jong Kyong Hong in Russia’s Kursk region, according to the Telegram post. Radio Free Asia was unable to independently verify the information.


About 50 North Korean soldiers were killed in Ukrainian drone attacks in Kursk last week, according to South Korea’s spy agency.


“North Korean troops are being ‘consumed’ for front-line assaults in an unfamiliar battlefield environment of open fields, and they lack the ability to respond to drone attacks,” said South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, as cited by lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun, who was briefed by the agency on Dec. 19.


The Ukrainian Special Forces posted a photograph of the notebook in its Telegram post. A diagram shows one person standing in front of the drone as the other two team members are positioned behind it, preparing to shoot.


“When a drone is spotted, form a team of three,” writing in the notebook said.


One person’s role is to lure in the drone from a forward position while maintaining a distance of about 7 meters (23 feet), the notes said. The other two should be ready to shoot the drone from a distance of 10 to 12 meters (32 to 40 feet), it said.


“When the person luring the drone stands still, the drone will also stop, making it possible for the two to aim and shoot it down,” the writing said.


‘Human bait’


The Ukrainian Special Forces deemed the method as “living human bait.” The special forces said that it was unclear whether the tactic was unique to the North Korean military or if it was something that the Russian military had taught to them.


Russian forces have complained that North Korean soldiers were a “burden” because of their “ignorance” of drone warfare, the South Korean spy agency said in its briefing last week.


Initial evidence from Ukraine has shown that North Korean soldiers are ill-prepared and lack the skills for modern warfare, said Federico Borsari, a resident fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis.


“They lacked counter-drone equipment, and with little cover they were easy targets for Ukrainian FPV operators,” he said, using the initials for “first-person view” –- a kind of drone that wirelessly transmits video feed.


“Many were killed while trying to hide among tall, dry grass crops and leafless tree lines,” he said. “Snow –- and Ukraine’s thermal sensors -– made them easily identifiable as most of those soldiers didn’t wear white camouflage.”

American, South Korean and Ukrainian authorities have said there are up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, deployed there primarily to help Russia push Ukrainian forces out of positions they captured in Kursk in August.


Earlier this week, Ukraine reported that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded in Kursk. South Korea has estimated that the number of casualties among North Korean troops is at least 1,100.


The Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, or DIU, noted on Dec. 17 that North Korean forces appeared to have taken additional measures to mitigate the threat of drone strikes.


“After serious losses, North Korean units began setting up additional observation posts to detect drones,” the DIU wrote in a post to its official Telegram channel.


On Thursday, DIU said on its website that North Korea has added at least five more observation posts to improve its drone reconnaissance.


It also said that Russian drone units have started providing tank and artillery support for North Korean troops during assaults. Recent footage had suggested that the North Koreans were sometimes receiving no assistance from Russian forces during combat.

Access Denied

Originally Posted by Troy

Zelensky talking sense at last, or at least being pragmatic about the current situation.

No, more an understanding that the fat orange turd will be pulling the rug from under his feet as ordered by the high heeled war criminal.

Ukraine says it captured two injured North Korean soldiers in Russia

Two wounded North Korean soldiers have been captured as prisoners of war by Ukrainian troops in Russia's Kursk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.


The two men are receiving "necessary medical assistance" and are in the custody of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kyiv, according to Zelensky.


The president said he was "grateful" to Ukrainian paratroopers and soldiers from the Special Operation Forces for capturing the North Koreans.


He added that "this was not an easy task", claiming that Russian and North Korean soldiers usually execute wounded North Koreans "to erase any evidence of North Korea's involvement in the war against Ukraine".

The Ukrainian intelligence service said in a statement that the prisoners were captured on 9 January and immediately after were "provided with all the necessary medical care as stipulated by the Geneva Convention" and taken to Kyiv.


"They are being held in appropriate conditions that meet the requirements of international law," the intelligence service's statement read.


The intelligence service said the prisoners do not speak Ukrainian, English or Russian, "so communication with them is carried out through interpreters of Korean, in cooperation with South Korean NIS (National Intelligence Service)".


In a statement posted on Telegram and X, Zelensky said the soldiers were "talking to SBU investigators" and he had instructed the Security Service of Ukraine to grant journalists access to them.


"The world needs to know the truth about what is happening," he added.


Zelensky also posted four photographs alongside his statement. Two show wounded men. One of the photos showed a red Russian military card.
The place of birth on the document is given as Turan, in the Tuva Republic, which is close to Mongolia.


The intelligence service said that when the prisoners were captured, one of the soldiers had a Russian military ID card issued in the name of another person with registration in the Tuva Republic. The other had no documents at all.


The intelligence service said that during interrogation, the soldier with the ID card told security personnel that he had been issued the document in Russia during the autumn of 2024.


He is alleged to have stated that at that time, some of North Korea's combat units had one-week interoperability training.


"It is noteworthy that the prisoner...emphasises that he was allegedly going for training, not to fight a war against Ukraine," the SBU statement said.
The intelligence service reported that he said he was born in 2005 and had been serving North Korea as a rifleman since 2021.

The second prisoner is reported to have given some of his answers in writing because he had an injured jaw, according to SBU. The intelligence service said it believed he was born in 1999 and had been serving North Korea as a scout sniper since 2016.


The Geneva Convention states that the questioning of prisoners should be carried out in a language they understand and prisoners must be protected against public curiosity.


Zelensky's office said in a statement that the Russians "are trying to hide the fact that these are soldiers from North Korea by giving them documents claiming they are from Tuva or other territories under Moscow's control".

"But these people are actually Koreans, they are from North Korea," the statement from the president's office said.


In 2014, Russian forces operating in Ukraine - despite Kremlin denials - were sent without identifying markings on their uniforms.


Last year, when President Vladimir Putin was asked about Russia using North Korean troops in its war on Ukraine, he did not deny it. He said it was Russia's "sovereign decision".


In December, South Korea's intelligence agency reported that a North Korean soldier believed to have been the first to be captured while supporting Russia's war in Ukraine had died after being taken alive by Ukrainian forces.


Separately, the White House said North Korean forces were experiencing mass casualties.


The Security Service of Ukraine said it "is currently conducting the necessary investigative measures to establish all the circumstances of the DPRK military's participation in Russia's war against Ukraine".


"The investigation is being conducted under the procedural guidance of the Prosecutor General's Office under Article 437 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (planning, preparation, unleashing and waging an aggressive war)."

Ukraine says it captured two injured North Korean soldiers in Russia