Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on his allies to stop “monitoring” and take the necessary steps before taking action. North Korean troops Those deployed in Russia have reached the battlefield and the country’s chief of staff has warned that its troops face “one of the strongest attacks” from Moscow since the start of all-out war more than two years ago.

Zelenskyy raised the possibility of a pre-emptive strike by Ukraine on the camps where North Korean troops train and said that Kiev knows the locations of these camps. But he said Ukraine could not use Western-made long-range weapons to hit targets deep inside Russia without permission from its allies.

“But instead… America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching. “Everyone expects the North Korean army to start attacking Ukrainians as well,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app on Friday.

The Biden administration said on Thursday: Approximately 8,000 North Korean troops are currently based in Russia’s Kursk region, near the border with Ukraine. and they are preparing to help the Kremlin War against Ukrainian troops 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 transferred to areas near Ukraine. The agency, known by its acronym GUR, said North Korean troops were training at five locations in Russia’s Far East. He did not specify the source of the information.

Western leaders explained the situation There is a significant increase in the deployment of North Korean troops This could also shake up relations in the Indo-Pacific region and open the door to technology transfers from Moscow to Pyongyang that could advance the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile program.

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

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

Moscow also constantly signaled He said he would view any such strike as a major escalation. President Vladimir Putin warned on September 12 that Russia would be “at war” with the United States and NATO states if they ratified it.

Zelenskyy’s call came shortly before Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, said Saturday that his troops were struggling to stop “one of the most powerful offensives” since Russia’s all-out invasion of its southern neighbor in February 2022 .

Writing on Telegram after a meeting with a senior Czech military official, Syrskyi implied that Ukrainian units had suffered heavy losses in the fighting and that this “requires constant replenishment of resources.”

Although Syrskyi did not specify where the violent clashes were taking place, Russia has been waging a violent campaign on Ukraine’s eastern front for months, gradually forcing Kiev to surrender. However, Moscow had difficulty removing Ukrainian forces from the Kursk border region. an attack almost three months ago.

Russian missiles hit Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Saturday, killing one police officer and wounding dozens of people, local Governor Oleh Syniehubov said. A missile hit the spot where a large group of police had gathered, killing a 40-year-old soldier and wounding 36 more, according to Syniehubov and Ukraine’s national police force.

Local Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported that a 40-year-old woman died and three people, including two children, were injured in the Russian bombardment in Ukraine’s southern Kherson province on Saturday. According to local Ukrainian officials, another Kherson resident was injured in a drone strike later the same day.

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

According to the statement made by the city’s military administration, a fire broke out in an office block in the city center in Kiev, while Russian unmanned aerial vehicles were raining down on the capital, and two people were injured. Air raid sirens sounded for more than five hours early Saturday morning.

Overall, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with over 70 Iranian-made Shahed drones overnight, the Ukrainian air force reported on Saturday. Many were reportedly shot or sent off course using GPS jamming. Falling debris damaged power networks and residential buildings in many provinces, and an elderly woman was injured near Kiev, officials said.

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Moscow launched slightly more than half as many in October as in the previous month, hinting that Russia’s drone campaign was slowing down.

Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry reported that its forces shot down 24 Ukrainian drones in four regions of Russia overnight and occupied Crimea. No immediate reports of loss of life or damage were provided.

Separately, Governor Aleksei Smirnov said four civilians were injured following a Ukrainian attack on Russia’s southern Kursk region, but did not specify which weapon was used. Moscow is still trying to force Ukrainian forces out of the province, months after they launched a bold attack that shook the Kremlin and constituted the biggest attack on Russia since World War II.

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