Ukraine captures North Korean soldiers; Russia ready for talks with Trump. russia-ukraine war news
Before the inauguration of newly elected United States President Donald Trump on Monday, Russia appeared to be preparing itself for talks with him on the future of Ukraine.
“It does not require any special circumstances. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said on Saturday that talks require mutual intention and political will.
But Russia expressed its parameters very quickly.
Putin aide Nikolai Patrushev told Russian news outlet KP that the US and Russia should reach a Ukraine deal without Ukraine and without the EU.
Asked whether regional concessions would be made, he said, “It is not even a topic of discussion.”
Moscow appears convinced that Trump’s world view is similar to its own and favorable to an agreement that sidelines Europe.
Patrushev drew a parallel between Moscow’s land grab in Ukraine and Trump’s claim in a January 7 press conference that the U.S. should absorb Greenland and resume control over Panama, saying “we need economic security.” They are needed for this”.
Trump also posted a map of the US and Canada as one country, describing their border as an “artificially drawn line” and their union as “much better for national security” – arguments the Kremlin is using to wage war on Ukraine. The arguments are similar to those used for.
“Trump outlined his interests with respect to Greenland, the Panama Canal, Mexico and Canada,” Patrushev said. “Redrawing the world map to suit one’s own interests and interfering in the affairs of countries on different continents is an American tradition.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said that Russia and the incoming US administration have similar views. He advised Trump to listen to the wishes of the people of Greenland, just as Russia – he said – listened to those it occupied in 2022.
“I believe that, first and foremost, we need to hear from the Greenlandic people,” Lavrov said at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday.
“This is the same way we – as neighbors on other islands, peninsulas and territories – listened to the residents of Crimea, Donbass and Novorossiya to understand their stance on the regime that seized power through an unlawful coup Was.”
Moscow believes that the 2014 Maidan uprising, which ousted then-President Viktor Yanukovych, was a US-planned coup.
Novorossiya was the term Catherine the Great used in the late 18th century to refer to the newly conquered territories that are now part of Ukraine. Moscow annexed Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson in September 2022 following an unsupervised referendum.
Moscow’s official view of the Ukraine conflict is that it is first and foremost about Russian security, with Ukraine’s territorial integrity and right to self-determination dismissed as irrelevant.
Trump’s election confirms the validity of the Russian approach, Lavrov said.
He said, “Everyone has understood this for a long time, but now they are starting to accept it: this is not about Ukraine itself, but Ukraine as a tool to weaken Russia’s position in the European security framework.” Being used as.”
“Naturally, threats on our western border, on our borders, must be neutralized.”
Global support for potential Putin-Trump deal
A new global poll of public opinion suggests that a deal between Putin and Trump could have the support of at least some influential countries.
In a survey released Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, majorities in India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China and Brazil saw Trump’s election as a good thing for peace in their countries and the world.
Most people in India, China, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Brazil viewed Russia as an ally or essential partner for their countries and believed that its influence in world affairs would not diminish or increase. Can also.
The survey revealed a majority of people in Ukraine, Britain and the European Union holding opposite views.
As the discussion of Russia, Europe, Ukraine, and much of the rest of the world was on Trump’s lips, the war in Ukraine flared up unchecked.
Fighting has intensified in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine retaliated against last August.
“Attacks are happening every day, continuously, all day and night,” Stanislav Krasnov, a platoon commander in Ukraine’s 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, told ArmyInform TV.
Ukraine captures North Korean soldiers
Ukrainian forces captured their first North Korean POW in Kursk on January 9, followed by a second prisoner on Saturday, casting doubt on the Russian military’s use of North Korean troops.
Ukraine releases footage of capture by Ukraine’s 84th Tactical Group for the first time.
The 20-year-old rifleman had a Russia-issued ID card from the Russian Federal Republic of Tuva – further indicating that Moscow had tried to hide its use of North Koreans.
Ukrainian paratroopers captured the second man, a 26-year-old reconnaissance sniper.
“It was not easy. Other North Korean soldiers and the Russians keep trying to finish off their wounded Koreans – specifically to prevent them from being captured,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in his evening address on Saturday. Did.
Zelensky releases video of interrogation of Ukrainian prisoners.
It appears that the rifleman says he was told he was going on a training exercise. Asked if he wanted to return to North Korea, he could be heard saying, “I want to stay in Ukraine.”
Zelensky suggested that North Koreans could be given amnesty to remain in Ukraine if they supported it.
“There may be some other options for North Korean soldiers who do not want to return. In particular, those Koreans who express their desire to bring about peace by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean language will be given such an opportunity,” he said.
Major Anton Zakharchuk, commanding Ukraine’s 95th Airmobile Battalion in Kursk, claimed that North Korean soldiers were apparently following similar orders to commit suicide to avoid capture.
“We try to identify them using aerial reconnaissance, they hide in trenches or burrows, and when we get closer, we hear explosions,” he said.
He also said that Russian troops were allowing the North Koreans to deal with the first wave of attacks by using them as human shields.
In one example, the 6th Rangers Regiment fighting at Kursk reported that a North Korean soldier attempted to draw them into their position in hopes of using a grenade to blow them up.
The North Korean fighter tried to mislead the soldiers and detonate himself with a grenade, the regiment wrote. It said that when Rangers approached him, “he blew himself up”.
Al Jazeera was unable to independently verify these claims.
In a telephone call with French President Emmanuel Macron, Zelensky said 4,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or wounded – about a third of the original number sent to active combat duty at Kursk in mid-December.
Russia says thousands of Ukrainian drones downed in 2024
Meanwhile, Ukraine stepped up its deep attacks against Russian infrastructure during the week.
Russian state news agency TASS reported on Tuesday a major aerial drone operation. Russia reportedly shot down or disabled 16 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the Tula region overnight, 14 in the Rostov region, 17 in the Oryol region and several in the Voronezh region.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its operation had struck the Kombinat Kristall oil storage facility in Engels, “where a fire that broke out five days after the previous attack had just been extinguished,” – a reference to the January 8 strike.
The General Staff also reported successful attacks on the Bryansk chemical plant in the city of Seltsoe, described as “a strategic facility of the Russian military-industrial complex… ammunition for artillery, multiple launch rocket systems , aviation, engineering ammunition and components of Kh-59 cruise missiles are manufactured here. “Secondary explosions were observed in the area of the plant, which lasted for several hours.”
The Saratov oil refinery and the Kazanorgsintez plant were also affected, workers said.
Earlier on Saturday, Ukraine used UAVs to attack the Russkaya reactor in Krasnodar Krai, which serves the TurkStream pipeline, Russian state news agency TASS said. Ukraine reportedly used nine UAVs in the attack in the village of Gaikodzor. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down all nine.
TurkStream is the only functioning Russian gas pipeline to Europe in 2022 after sabotage at Nord Stream and the Yamal pipeline across Ukraine shut down on January 1 after the contract with Russian energy company Gazprom expired.
Ukraine has made no secret of its desire to stop all imports of Russian energy to Western countries.
Ukraine is troubled by imports of $7.3 billion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year, Ukrainian presidential adviser Vladislav Vlasyuk told EU ambassadors in Kiev on Monday. “Now is the time to stop the petrodollar flow that fuels Russia’s aggression,” he said.
Ukraine is also frustrated by the slow or insufficient supply of long-range weapons that would enable it to fight on Russian soil, and has increasingly invested in its own production of weapons.
TASS put the number of Ukrainian drones downed by Russia last year at 7,300. Zelensky on Saturday called on its manufacturers to “make this year a record in terms of all types of drones.”
The previous day, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyal told the Verkhovna Rada that arms spending would increase to a record $17.5 billion in 2025 and domestic industrial potential would reach $30 billion. It is believed that it will reach $7 billion in 2024.
Ukraine has also struggled to control its airspace.
The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 400 aerial targets in the week of January 6–12, almost all of which were UAVs of various types. Zelensky said Russia had launched 600 drones during that week.
