Six killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine as world leaders express ‘grave concern’ over North Korean troops in Russia

October 26, 2024 journo

Russian missile strikes killed four people including a child in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro overnight, while a teenager and another person died in attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.

The strikes on Dnipro also damaged multiple buildings including a hospital, authorities said.

Twenty people were wounded in the city, including four children, Dnipropetrovsk region governor Sergiy Lysak said on Telegram.

The teenage girl in Kyiv was killed in a drone strike, according to regional authorities.

The strikes came less than 48 hours after Russia finished hosting a three-day summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies in the city of Kazan, where President Vladimir Putin faced calls from world leaders to end the conflict.

“After everything that was said in Kazan, Russian murderers returned to their usual business,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday.

“This proves once again that aggression cannot be stopped by talking, but only by decisive actions in defence of the state,” he added.

Ukrainian cities including Kyiv have been subjected to deadly drone and missile attacks since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Russian military said on Saturday it had captured the frontline village of Oleksandropol in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it has made a string of advances in recent months.

World leaders express ‘grave concern’ over North Korean troops in Russia

A man waves at a large crowd of soldiers — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits a military training base last month, in a photo released by the country’s central news agency. (Supplied: KCNA via Reuters)

US, South Korean and Japanese national security advisers expressed “grave concern” on Friday over the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia for possible use against Ukraine, according to the White House.

The trio see the North Korean troop presence as the latest sign of growing Moscow-Pyongyang military ties, and they called on Russia and North Korea to cease arms and missile transfers, White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.

The transfers violate UN Security Council resolutions, he said.

Mr Kirby briefed reporters after US national security adviser Jake Sullivan held talks in Washington with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Shin Won-sik and Takeo Akiba, respectively.

“The national security advisers express grave concern over troop deployments” by North Korea in Russia, “potentially for use against Ukraine”, Mr Kirby said.

The North Koreans’ presence in Russia and the weapons transfers “expand the security implications of Russia’s brutal and illegal war beyond Europe and into the Indo-Pacific”, he added.

Mr Kirby spoke after Mr Zelenskyy, citing intelligence reports, said on X that Russia plans to deploy North Korean troops beginning on Sunday.

He did not say where they would be sent.

Mr Kirby said it is possible that there are more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers in Russia, confirming the size of the deployment he gave on Thursday.

“We are looking into reports that the number could be north of that,” he said.

Some North Korean troops could be sent to fight Ukrainian forces that have been holding a chunk of Russia’s Kursk region since August, Mr Kirby said.

G7 agrees to loan billions to Ukraine

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Leaders of the Group of Seven wealthy democracies on Friday reached consensus on delivery of some $US50 billion ($AU75.7 billion) in loans to Ukraine backed by the earnings from frozen Russian sovereign assets, starting as early as December.

“These loans will be serviced and repaid by future flows of extraordinary revenues stemming from the immobilisation of Russian Sovereign Assets,” the G7 statement said.

“Our aim is to begin disbursing the funds by the end of the year,” said the statement, which was released as global finance chiefs were meeting in Washington for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings.

Friday’s announcement of the “extraordinary revenue acceleration loans” makes good on an easement reached in June by G7 leaders during their annual summit in southern Italy to harness earnings from frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine, a deal that left many technical details to be hammered out.

Some $US280.62 billion ($AU424.8 billion) in Russian assets such as central bank reserves were frozen under sanctions imposed following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The vast majority of those assets are held in Euroclear, a Belgium-based central securities depository, making the European Union a key player in any plan to make use of the assets.

“The G7 remains steadfast in its solidarity to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom, and its recovery and reconstruction,” the G7 leaders’ statement said, adding that “time is not on President Putin’s side.”

AFP/Reuters