Ukraine Russia war: North Korean troops ‘already in Ukraine’ as Kyiv drafts 160,000

Ukraine has received only 10 per cent of US military aid approved by Congress earlier this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video released on Wednesday.

Russia, which sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, has accelerated its advances in the east and Kyiv’s military is outgunned and outmanned by its more powerful foe.

Ukraine is also bracing for what could be the toughest winter of the war after long-range Russian airstrikes destroyed what officials say is about half of its power generating capacity.

“You do your job. You count on reserves, you count on special brigades, you count on such equipment. And if you get 10 per cent of all the package (that) has already been voted on… it’s not funny,” Zelenskyy said in remarks in English to Nordic journalists on Tuesday that were published in full on his Telegram page on Wednesday.

A $61 billion aid package from the United States, stalled by Republicans in Congress from December last year, was approved in April.

Zelenskiy added that the slow pace of weapons supplies was not a question of funding. “It’s always the question of bureaucracy or logistics, ideas or scepticism… This we will give you, this – will not,” he said.

He also said that NATO countries had pledged to supply Ukraine with six or seven air defence systems, which Ukraine increasingly relies on to repel long-range Russian strikes, by the beginning of September but that Kyiv had not yet received all of them.

The United States has imposed curbs on hundreds of targets in fresh action against Russia, taking aim at sanctions circumvention in a signal that the US is committed to countering evasion.

The action, taken by the US Treasury and State departments, imposed sanctions on nearly 400 entities and individuals from over a dozen different countries, according to statements from the Treasury and State departments.

The action was the most concerted push so far against third country evasion, a State Department official told Reuters. It included sanctions on dozens of Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian companies, the most from those countries to be hit in one package so far, according to the official. Also hit with sanctions were targets in Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, Switzerland and elsewhere.

The action comes as Washington has sought to curb Russia’s evasion of the sanctions imposed after its 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The US has repeatedly warned against supplying Russia with Common High Priority Items – advanced components including microelectronics deemed by the US and European Union as likely to be used for Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“This should send a serious message to both the governments and the private sectors of these countries that the US government is committed to countering the evasion of our sanctions against Russia and to continue putting pressure on Russia to end its war in Ukraine,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said.

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on 274 targets, while the State Department designated more than 120 and the Commerce Department added 40 companies and research institutions to a trade restriction list over their alleged support of the Russian military.

“The United States and our allies will continue to take decisive action across the globe to stop the flow of critical tools and technologies that Russia needs to wage its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement.

The UK’s chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged to provide the defence ministry with an additional £2.9billion next year and promised an annual £3billion support for Ukraine would continue for “as long as it takes”.

In her first Budget speech presented on Wednesday, Ms Reeves said the extra spending would take Britain towards its goal of allocating 2.5 per cent of GDP towards defence, and ensure the country exceeded the NATO commitment of spending 2 per cent.

She added that the promise to maintain the annual military support to Ukraine came on top of a £2.26billion loan, part of the G7’s Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration agreement announced last week, to aid the country in its war against Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has strongly suggested that Kyiv has requested supplies of long-range US Tomahawk missiles, as he made critical remarks about “confidential” information he said had been leaked.

Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), far greater than any missile Ukraine currently has in its arsenal. Such a weapons delivery would almost certainly be seen by Russia as an escalation in its war in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy travelled to the United States last month to pitch a “victory plan” to President Joe Biden, which he said could help pressure Moscow to negotiate an end to the war in good faith.

The Ukrainian leader has since said the plan envisages a “non-nuclear deterrence package” that would only be used if Moscow does not end its full-scale invasion and continues to escalate the conflict.

Some of the plan’s details have been kept confidential, something Zelenskyy alluded to in remarks in English to Nordic journalists on Tuesday that were published in full on his Telegram page on Wednesday.

The New York Times also cited a senior US official on Tuesday as saying that Zelenskyy had asked for Tomahawk missiles, something the official said was totally unfeasible.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the West should admit Russia has “won” in Georgia and is on its way to doing the same in Moldova unless Western rhetoric against crossing Moscow’s red lines was dropped.

“We have to recognise in Georgia for today Russia won. First, they took part of Georgia, then they changed policy, the government. And now [Georgia] has a pro-Russian government,” he said in English in a video released on Wednesday.

He added that Russia was “on the way” to doing the same in Moldova. “And they will do, if of course the West will not stop dialogue [against] crossing of red lines,” Zelenskiy said.

Russia has claimed Britain is using a Black Sea grain corridor to deliver arms to Ukraine, after denying London’s allegations that Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports had disrupted crucial grain supplies for other countries.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week that an increase in Russian attacks on Ukraine’s Black Sea ports was delaying vital aid reaching the Palestinians and stopping crucial grain supplies from being delivered to the global south.

The United Nations said last week that Russian attacks on Ukrainian Black Sea ports had damaged six civilian vessels as well as grain infrastructure since 1 September, calling the ramp-up in strikes “distressing”.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that Starmer’s allegations that Moscow was damaging global food security with such strikes were wide of the mark.

“Such baseless yet thunderous outrage from London once again confirms just the opposite: the direct involvement of the UK in supplying arms to the Kiev regime using the Black Sea sea corridor,” she alleged in a press briefing.

Zakharova referred to what she said was recent video evidence concerning the port of Yuzhny, in Ukraine’s Odesa region, and purported arms supplies published by Russia’s Ministry of Defence.

Her claims could not be independently verified and there was no immediate response to them from London.

Germany discussed with China findings by NATO and the United States that North Korean soldiers are in Russia, a foreign ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.

“You can assume that we have discussed the issue with the Chinese side,” the spokesperson said.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko discussed the Ukraine crisis in talks on Wednesday and Wang reaffirmed Beijing’s strong ties with Moscow, the Chinese foreign ministry said.

Both exchanged views on the crisis but the ministry statement did not disclose details of the discussion.

Wang reiterated China and Russia’s strong relations, that were not affected by “changes in the international situation”.

“Both sides should make joint efforts to coordinate cooperation in various fields and exchanges at all levels,” he said, without elaboration.

Russia’s RIA agency first reported that Rudenko was in Beijing for the meeting.

The visit takes place as Russia’s war in Ukraine appeared to take a dangerous new turn, with NATO and South Korea expressing alarm that North Korean troops could soon be joining Moscow’s side.

Rudenko has been involved in developing Russian ties with North Korea after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022. He was also a member of the Russian delegations at peace negotiations with Ukraine early in the war.

A Russian court has fined Google $2.5 decillion for allegedly blocking pro-Kremlin propaganda on YouTube.

The fine, which is the equivalent of $2.5 trillion trillion trillion, is the result of four years of accumulated fines, with the figure currently doubling every week under Russian law.

The original penalty of 100,000 rubles was handed to the US tech giant in 2020 after the media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won lawsuits related to restrictions on their YouTube channels.

Anthony Cuthbertson reports: