Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin oversees nuclear drills amid NKorea troop deployment
Russia has hailed fresh nuclear drills a success as the Pentagon confirmed North Korean troops in Russia’s Kursk region. Follow updates.
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Russia said its army held fresh nuclear drills under the supervision of President Vladimir Putin, who recently called for changes to rules on the use of Moscow’s nuclear deterrent.
Mr Putin has raised the prospect of using nuclear weapons during Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine several times and last month suggested Russia broaden its rules on using nuclear weaponry.
Russia’s defence ministry said a “training exercise was conducted with the forces and means of the land, maritime and aviation components of the strategic deterrent force” and that an “intercontinental ballistic missile was launched.”
The ministry said the missile was launched at a test site in the far-eastern Kamchatka peninsula.
Other missiles were launched from a submarine in the Barents Sea in the Arctic and from the Sea of Okhotsk in the Russian Far East.
The ministry said the drills were conducted successful and that the missiles had “reached their targets.”
The TASS news industry published footage of a missile being launched in the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Russian Far-North.
In September, Mr Putin suggested that Moscow change its nuclear doctrine to allow it to unleash a nuclear response in the event of a “massive” air attack.
Under the proposed rules, Russia would also consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both, in a seeming reference to Ukraine.
The plans came as Ukraine is seeking authorisation to use long-range missiles against Russia, which has so far been met by US reluctance.
US CONFIRMS NKOREA TROOPS IN RUSSIAN REGION
It comes as the Pentagon confirmed a “small number” of North Korean troops have been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region, on the Ukrainian border, expressing concern that they will be used in combat against Kyiv’s troops.
It is the first US confirmation of a North Korean deployment in the region, where Ukrainian troops have been conducting a ground offensive since August and control several hundred square miles (kilometers) of Russian territory.
Neither Russia nor North Korea - both nuclear-capable states - has denied North Korean troops are in Russia
NATO chief Mark Rutte said the previous day that North Korean forces were in Kursk, while the United States had until now only expressed concern that they could be deployed there.
Washington says a total of around 10,000 North Korean troops are currently in Russia.
Experts have said that in return for these forces, North Korea is likely aiming to acquire military technology, ranging from surveillance satellites to submarines, plus possible security guarantees from Moscow.
Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance in the course of the Ukraine conflict. Both are under sanctions - Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons program, and Moscow for its war against Kyiv
It comes as Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the rest of the world could be dragged into the conflict.
Mr Zelenskyy made the remarks after speaking with South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday to discuss the escalation.
“This war is becoming internationalised, extending beyond two countries,” Mr Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“We (Ukraine and South Korea) agreed to strengthen intelligence and expertise exchange, intensify contacts at all levels, especially the highest, in order to develop an action strategy and countermeasures to address this escalation.”
Mr Zelenskyy’s comments come as North Korea’s foreign minister Choe Son-hui arrived in Vladivostok on Tuesday with plans to travel to Moscow on Wednesday.
A statement from the North Korean foreign ministry said Choe’s visit “is taking place within the framework of a strategic dialogue following an agreement to enhance ties reached by the leaders of our countries”.
It comes after US President Jow Biden labelled the situation “very dangerous” when quizzed by reporters as he cast his ballot for presidential candidate and fellow republican Kamala Harris on Monday.
NORTH KOREA’S ESCALATION COULD IMPACT AUSTRALIA
NATO chief Mark Rutte has decried the deployment of North Korean troops to bolster Russia’s war effort in Ukraine as a dangerous expansion of the conflict.
Speaking in Brussels after a briefing with South Korean intelligence officials, Mr Rutte said he could confirm that North Korean military units had been sent to Russia’s western Kursk region.
“The deepening military co-operation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” Mr Rutte told a press conference.
“The deployment (of) North Korean troops to Kursk is also a sign of Putin’s growing desperation.”
Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since WWII will further exhaust Ukraine as well as stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, citing intelligence reports, previously claimed that North Korean troops would be on the battlefield within days.
He said his government had information that some 10,000 troops from North Korea were being readied to join Russian forces fighting against his country.
Days before Mr Zelenskyy spoke, American and South Korean officials said there was evidence North Korea had dispatched troops to Russia, with 3000 North Korean troops already deployed to Russia for training.
South Korea, NATO and the United States have also claimed thousands of North Korean troops are training in Russia.
Rutte said more than 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since the conflict started, adding the Kremlin was unable to sustain the invasion without foreign support.
Growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang are a major concern for the US and the European Union, as Putin presses ahead with his efforts to build an anti-Western alliance.
Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister who took over the reins of NATO this month, called on Moscow and Pyongyang to “cease these actions immediately”.
Washington made clear to China “that we are concerned about it and that they ought to be concerned about this destabilising action by two of its neighbours, Russia and North Korea,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters.
China and Russia are both allies of Pyongyang. NATO’s Indo-Pacific partners, including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, have also been briefed on the situation, he said.
‘GRAVE CONCERN’: SOUTH KOREA REACTS
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol called the deployment a “provocation that threatens global security beyond the Korean Peninsula and Europe”.
Yoon also said South Korea will review its stance on providing weapons to Ukraine.
Seoul has already sold billions of dollars of tanks, howitzers, attack aircraft and rocket launchers to Poland, a key ally of Kyiv.
In June, South Korea agreed to transfer the knowledge needed to build K2 tanks to Poland, which experts have said could be a key step towards production inside Ukraine.
South Korea’s Hanwha Aerospace has signed a $US1.64bn ($A2.4bn) deal with Poland to supply rocket artillery units.
South Korea voiced “grave concern” on as Moscow moved to ratify its defence treaty with Pyongyang.
Russian politicians have voted unanimously to ratify a defence treaty with North Korea that provides for “mutual assistance” if either party faces aggression. It will now be sent to the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, for approval.
While stopping short of confirming boots on the ground, a North Korean official said any troop deployment to Russia would be in line with international law.
The South Korean government said it “strongly urges the immediate withdrawal of North Korean troops and the cessation of illegal co-operation”.
Seoul “expresses grave concern over Russia’s ratification of the Russia-North Korea treaty amid the ongoing deployment of North Korean troops to Russia,” the South Korean foreign ministry said in a statement.
Seoul said it would work with allies to “take appropriate measures” over the move, and the country – a major arms exporter – has suggested it could revise its longstanding policy that prevents sending weapons directly to Kyiv.
A senior official within the Ukrainian president’s office said the North Korean troops could be deployed either to the Russian region of Kursk or in eastern Ukraine.
Branding the prospect “very worrying”, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz said it showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was facing difficulties in the war.
“It is serious and, of course, something that escalates the situation further,” he told German media while visiting India.
RUSSIA CLAIMS UKRAINE VILLAGE
Meanwhile, Russia said it took another village in eastern Ukraine, south of the city of Pokrovsk where its forces have been advancing for months
Moscow’s forces, outnumbering and outgunning the Ukrainian army, have advanced fast towards Pokrovsk since the summer.
Moscow’s defence ministry said troops had taken the village of Tsukuryne, some 25 kilometres south of Pokrovsk. It is one of the larger villages Moscow has claimed in recent weeks in its advance in the Donetsk region.
Moscow has spent months advancing westwards in the embattled Donetsk region. Ukraine has evacuated much of Pokrovsk, a former mining city that was home to some 60,000 people before Moscow launched its full-scale offensive in February 2022.
Thousands have fled the city as Russia advances.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin oversees nuclear drills amid NKorea troop deployment
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