Zelenskyy: North Korean troops are poised for deployment

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that Russia is expected to deploy North Korean soldiers to combat arsenic aboriginal arsenic Sunday.

In a connection posted to his authoritative X societal media account, Zelenskyy said the prediction is based connected subject quality helium received successful a Friday briefing from equipped forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi.

Zelenskyy called the determination a “clear escalation by Russia,” adding that “the satellite tin intelligibly spot Russia’s existent intentions: to proceed the war.”

Calling for a “principled and beardown response” from planetary leaders, Zelenskyy said, “North Korea’s existent engagement successful combat should not beryllium met with indifference oregon uncertain commentary, but with tangible unit connected some Moscow and Pyongyang, to uphold the U.N. Charter and to clasp them accountable for this escalation.”

Responding Thursday to a Ukraine quality study that the North Korean troops were successful Russia’s Kursk region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was up to Moscow to determine however they mightiness beryllium deployed, including perchance sending them to combat connected the beforehand lines against Ukraine. He did not contradict a U.S. assertion that North Korea has dispatched immoderate 3,000 troops to combat alongside Russian forces.

On Friday, North Korean authorities broadcaster KCNA carried a connection by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Jong Gyu, who would not remark straight connected reports of the deployment, but said if determination were specified a thing, “I deliberation it volition beryllium an enactment conforming with the regulations of planetary law."

Ukraine has argued North Korean information successful the warfare violates planetary law; U.S. officials earlier this week called specified a deployment a large escalation. But Putin argued the West had escalated the warfare successful Ukraine by sending NATO officers and instructors to assistance Kyiv support itself against Russian aggression.

Meanwhile, successful an interrogation with Russian tv Friday, Putin spoke astir imaginable cease-fire negotiations with Ukraine, saying Russia was acceptable to question compromises. He said Turkey had presented a fig of bid initiatives to some Russia and Ukraine, which helium claimed Ukraine has rejected.

Regarding imaginable compromises, Putin said: “Any result indispensable beryllium successful Russia's favor. ... This result should beryllium based upon the realities which are taking signifier connected the battlefield. Without immoderate doubt, we are not going to marque immoderate concessions. There volition beryllium nary speech [of territory], whatsoever."

Putin blamed Ukraine for what helium described arsenic “irrational behavior” successful negotiations, saying, “It is not imaginable to physique immoderate plans connected this basis.”

Bio laboratory construction

In an exclusive study Friday, The Washington Post said outer images from the past 2 years person shown important operation astatine a site-restricted subject installation northeast of Moscow that was erstwhile a large probe halfway for biologic weapons.

The study said the tract has a past of experiments that included viruses that origin smallpox, Ebola and hemorrhagic fevers.

The outer imagery of the Russian site, called Sergiev Posad-6, shows construction vehicles renovating the Soviet-era laboratory and breaking crushed connected 10 caller buildings, totaling much than 250,000 quadrate feet, with respective of them bearing hallmarks of biologic labs designed to grip highly unsafe pathogens.

The study said determination has been nary motion specified weapons are being utilized successful the Ukraine conflict, but the operation is being intimately watched by U.S. quality agencies and bioweapons experts.

Ukraine’s Kyiv Independent reported Friday the evident deployment of North Korean troops could beryllium astatine slightest successful portion a effect of Russia’s losses connected the battlefield.

In a study connected its Facebook societal media account, the Ukraine General Staff of the equipped forces reported Russia has mislaid 685,910 troops since the opening of its full-scale penetration of Ukraine connected Feb. 24, 2022. This includes, the wide unit study said, 1,630 casualties implicit a 24-hour play ending Friday.

Ukraine has intimately guarded its battlefield unit casualties, adjacent from Western allies, but a U.S. authoritative successful September estimated Ukraine has apt seen an estimated 57,500 troops killed and 250,000 wounded, according to a study by The New York Times.

Battlefield casualties are hard to verify, and Russia has made claims that Ukrainian casualties are overmuch higher than those indicated by Ukrainian and U.S. estimates.

Some accusation for this study was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.