Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia attacked the Ukrainian capital kyiv on Wednesday with a sophisticated combination of missiles and drones for the first time in 73 days, authorities reported, as the Pentagon said most North Korean troops had been sent to help. Moscow’s war effort were fighting to drive the Ukrainian army from Russian soil, in the Kursk border region. South Korea’s intelligence agency also said North Korean troops “engaged in combat” in the Kursk region, hours after the US military shared its assessment of growing cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
Air raid alerts sounded for hours as Russia targeted eight regions of Ukraine, firing six ballistic and cruise missiles and 90 drones, Ukraine’s air force said. Air defense downed four missiles and 37 drones, and another 47 drones were stopped by electronic jamming, the statement said.
Yan Dobronosov/Global Images Ukraine/Getty
The damage was being assessed.
The air assault came as most of the more than 10,000 North Korean troops sent by Pyongyang to help Moscow in the war were engaged in fighting in Kursk, where a Ukrainian army incursion three months ago managed to hold a large area of territory, embarrassing the country. Kremlin.
The Russian military has trained North Korean soldiers in artillery, drones and basic infantry operations, including trench clearing, deputy Pentagon spokesman Vedant Patel said Tuesday. from a press briefing. According to the Pentagon, the cooperation faces challenges, including achieving military interoperability and overcoming the language barrier.
Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General said previously that the deployment of North Korean troops in Russia was a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “increasing desperation” as the full-scale war he launched against Ukraine nears the end of its third year, but he also said it marked “an escalation significant” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict, and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.” »
kyiv officials said Russia had deployed about 50,000 troops to Kursk to try to dislodge the Ukrainians.
In recent months, Russia has been gathering forces for a counteroffensive at Kursk, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank, although the timetable for the operation is not known.
Russia’s plans in Kursk and Ukraine’s efforts to contain a Russian attack in the eastern Donetsk region coincide with political uncertainty over how the new US administration of President-elect Donald Trump will change war policy of Washington. US military aid is vital to Ukraine, but Trump has indicated he does not want to continue giving tens of billions of dollars to kyiv.
President Biden intends to increase U.S. military support for Ukraine in the final months of his administration, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday.
The United States “will continue to strengthen everything we do for Ukraine to ensure that it can defend itself effectively against this Russian aggression,” Blinken told reporters at NATO headquarters ahead of the meetings. planned with allied envoys and Ukrainian officials.
Blinken warned that North Korea’s decision to send its troops into combat operations alongside Russian forces “demands and will get a strong response.” He did not specify.