‘Skin you!’: Drone fires at Aussies in war zone

Incredible footage shows fired up Australians screaming with passion as a suspected killer drone bears down on them in a war zone.

Incredible trench footage shows fired up Australian volunteers pushing back a Russian assault in war-torn Ukraine as they come under fire from a suspected drone attack.

The clip is filmed from the helmet of a fighter and believed to be taken near Zaporizhia — a city on the Dnieper River in the southeast of the nation.

It opens with an Aussie yelling “I’m going to skin you!” before he unleashes a barrage of shots into the surrounding foliage from his trench.

The footage then shows the fighter running through the trench before firing off another intense barrage of shots and screaming with rage.

Footage shows Aussies fighting in Ukraine.

The volunteers can be heard firing off a barrage of shots.

The volunteer then turns his rifle to the sky and shouts “there he is” before firing shots at a suspected Russian drone.

“F**king c**t,” he shouts after the shots are fired towards them.

The Aussie then ducks down inro the trench to avoid incoming Russian shots.

“Missed us!” he yells, as another figher can be heard sniggering and telling him to “relax, relax, relax.”

They appear to take the upper hand over the Russian forces in the footage. The volunteers can be seen cheering and one soldier can be seen raising his hand in the air in celebration as the clip comes to a close.

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A fighter raises his fist in the air.

There is no precise, official figure on how many Australian volunteers are currently fighting in Ukraine, but estimates suggest that a small number of Aussies have joined the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine or other volunteer groups since the start of the conflict.

As of 2022, it was confirmed that some Australians were fighting alongside other foreign nationals, and several have died in combat. The International Legion includes volunteers from multiple countries such as France, Germany, and the Netherlands​

The Australian government has generally discouraged Aussies from travelling to Ukraine to fight, emphasising the risks and legal consequences. Nevertheless, Australians continue to volunteer in various capacities, including combat roles and humanitarian support.

North Korean soldiers spotted

The footage comes amid a major geopolitical row over international soldiers joining the conflict.

In a concerning escalation this week, a group of North Korean soldiers were spotted in Russia’s Kursk region, an area of ongoing military operations, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence service.

After training in Russia’s far east, some troops have now made their way to the western Russia region where Ukraine has maintained a strong foothold since launching an incursion in August.

In a post on its official Telegram account, the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine said the troops had been spotted in Kursk on Wednesday.

North Korea soldiers receive uniforms and equipment at a Russian army training base. Picture: Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security

South Korea is furious about the development. It urged Russia to stop its “illegal co-operation” with Pyongyang and voiced “grave concern” on Friday as Moscow moved to ratify its defence treaty with North Korea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned shortly after that Russia was planning to send North Korean troops into battle against his country as early as Sunday, and urged world leaders to pile “tangible pressure” on Pyongyang.

Russian politicians voted unanimously on Thursday 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.

According to South Korea and the United States, thousands of North Korean troops were training in Russia.

Ukraine said this week that North Korean soldiers had arrived in the “combat zone” in Russia’s Kursk border region.

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”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Picture: Vladimir Smirnov / POOL / AFP

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.

The national security advisers of the United States, South Korea and Japan on Friday discussed the North Korean troop deployment, the White House said, with the officials expressing “grave concern” at the development.

“This deployment is the latest in a series of concerning indicators of deepening military co-operation between the DPRK and Russia,” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, using the acronym for the official name of North Korea.

‘Punish escalation’

Zelensky said North Korean troops could be sent to fight Ukrainian troops this weekend.

“The actual involvement of North Korea in hostilities should be met not with a blind eye and confused comments but with tangible pressure on both Moscow and Pyongyang to comply with the UN Charter and to punish escalation,” he said on social media.

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.

Putin said in an interview that aired Friday on state television that it was up to Moscow how it uses the new defence treaty’s clause on mutual military assistance.

“It’s our sovereign decision, whether we use something or not,” Putin said. “Where, how, whether we need this, or (if) we, for example, only carry out some exercises, training, passing on some experience — that’s our business.” Seoul and Washington have long claimed that the nuclear-armed North is shipping arms to Russia.

One of North Korea’s United Nations representatives said at the UN General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament and International Security that the country was sending neither weapons nor soldiers to help Moscow.

The allegations by South Korea and others are “nothing more than groundless rumours aimed at tarnishing the image of DPRK”, Rim Mu Song said.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said North Korean troops are readying for an attack. Picture: Francois Walschaerts / AFP

South Korea’s representative flagged videos circulating online of North Korean soldiers in Russian uniforms speaking Korean, but Rim said they “again totally reject the allegation” of troop deployment.

On Friday, a diplomatic official in Pyongyang argued that his country would be well within its rights to deploy soldiers on Russian soil.

“If there is such a thing that the world media is talking about, I think it will be an act conforming with the regulations of international law,” said Kim Jong Gyu, North Korea’s vice foreign minister in charge of Russian affairs.

‘Provocation’

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has 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 $1.64-billion deal with Poland to supply rocket artillery units.

North Korea has adopted a new national anthem, state media reported on Friday, another move that experts suspect will further leader Kim Jong-un’s drive to define his country as entirely separate from, and in opposition to, the South.

North Korea amended its constitution to define the South as a “hostile” state and last week blew up roads and railways that once connected the two countries.

— with AFP