NATO chief confirms North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine shoots down 66 of 100 drones that Russia launches overnight, 24 more go off radar, and four drones go to Russia and Belarus. Russian attacks on the city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region injure 21, including six children.
NATO chief confirms North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed on Monday that North Korean troops have been sent to help Russia in its war against Ukraine and said some have already been deployed in Russia’s Kursk region.
Rutte said that a delegation from South Korea briefed the Alliance and its other Indo-Pacific partners — Australia, Japan and New Zealand on “North Korea’s growing involvement in Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”
“Today, I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, and that North Korean military units have been deployed to the Kursk region. The deployment of North Korean troops represents: one, a significant escalation in the DPRK ongoing involvement in Russia’s illegal war. Two, yet another breach of UN Security Council resolutions. And three, a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war,” Rutte said, referring to North Korea’s official name.
“NATO calls on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions immediately. The deepening military cooperation between Russia and North Korea is a threat to both the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security,” he added.
The NATO chief also emphasized that Pyongyang has earlier supplied ballistic missiles and ammunition rounds to Russia for its war in Ukraine. “In exchange, Putin is providing North Korea with military technology and other support to circumvent international sanctions,” Rutte said.
“This underlines the importance of democracies standing together to uphold our values and to face our shared security challenges,” he said, adding that “the deployment of North Korean troops to Kursk is also a sign of Putin’s growing desperation. Over 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded in Putin’s war, and he is unable to sustain his assault to Ukraine without foreign support.”
Rutte reassured that “NATO Allies will continue to support a free and democratic Ukraine, because Ukraine’s security is our security.”
He added that he was due to talk with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov later Monday.
Ukraine shoots down 66 of 100 drones that Russia launches overnight, 24 more go off radar, four drones go to Russia, Belarus
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 66 out of 100 drones launched by Russia during an overnight attack on Monday. Twenty-four more disappeared off radar after likely being disabled by electronic warfare systems. Four more drones flew into Russia and Belarus. At 10:30 a.m. when the report was released, combat action against the remaining drones was underway, the military added. The drones were launched from the area of Russia’s Kursk, Oryol, and Primorsko-Akhtarsk.
The intercepts took place over the regions of Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kropyvnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolayiv, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, and Zhytomyr. Most of the drones were shot down over the regions of Kyiv, Cherkasy, and Khmelnytskyi.
Several drones hit civilian infrastructure sites, the Ukrainian Air Force said.
The Air Force and other branches of the Ukrainian military deployed aircraft, surface-to-air missile troops, electronic warfare units and mobile groups to repel the attack.
Russian attacks on Kharkiv and surrounding region injure 21, including six children
At least 21 people, including six children were wounded when Russian forces launched a series of attacks on the city of Kharkiv and the surrounding region on Sunday evening and overnight on Monday.
Thirteen people, including a 16-year-old girl, were wounded when Russia dropped glide bombs on the Shevchenkivskyi, Saltivskyi, and Kholodnohirskyi districts of Kharkiv in two separate attacks, regional authorities said. The strikes damaged apartment buildings, private homes, an outbuilding and passenger cars.
Another eight people, including five children, were wounded in Chuhuyiv when the city was struck from a Tornado-S multiple launch rocket system. An outbuilding caught fire as a result of the attack, head of the regional military administration, Oleh Synehubov said.