North Korea ‘on the cusp’ of sending troops into Ukraine as the US considers deploying contractors

North Korea ‘on the cusp’ of sending troops into Ukraine as the US considers deploying contractors

raising the stakes of the war in Ukraine America and North Korea both appear to be on the cusp of sending their citizens in North Korea’s case soldiers to fight on opposite sides of the bloodbath Battlefield SC we’re in my name is Jerome starky I’m the defense editor at the Sun newspaper and this is Frontline your weekly Roundup of the most important news from the war in Ukraine we start today with news that North Korea is reportedly planning to send at least one battalion of its combat engineers to occupied eastern Ukraine to donbass to the donbass region where Russian forces are in control to support President Putin’s Armed Forces now it’s not clear what they will do this report has come from the South Korean media and of course it follows President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pon Yang where he was fated by the North Korean leader and by thousands of people it appeared to be who had been ordered out onto the streets waving garlands and flowers uh you remember those extraordinary scenes of the two dictators driving around the North Korean capital as buildings around them were funed with banners and huge Larger than Life portraits of the two leaders now this is significant because it is the first time that Russia would have soldiers from another country uh still wearing the uniform one would assume of that third country supporting its conflict in Ukraine Russia like Ukraine has had uh fighters from third countries uh supporting taking part in the war effort but ostensibly uh joining uh the Russian Armed Forces as Ukraine has had International volunteers joining its Armed Forces this would be different this we understand North Korean soldiers effectively taking part in uh the war on Russia’s side broadening that conflict taking it one step closer to becoming a global conflict not a World War but a war that is drawing in uh countries from around the world and on the other side we understand from a report on CNN that the White House is considering plans to lift a de facto ban on American contractors deploying to Ukraine now these would be civilian contractors not Amic American armed forces but nonetheless contractors who support the Pentagon contractors with who work for the US military likely going into Ukraine in order to support the maintenance and uh repair of sophisticated Western weapon systems weapon systems like the Patriot air defense batteries which have proved so crucial in defending Ukraine’s high value targets and cities from the ongoing Russian bombardments now for example we know that at the moment when vehicles for example like British Challenger 2 tanks American Abrams Tanks german-made leopard tanks are damaged or uh break down as a result of their use in this conflict Ukraine has two options it can try and repair them in situ but for complicated uh significant repairs often those Vehicles those weapon systems need to be taken out of the country uh to neighboring countries where uh there are NATO soldiers based and those soldiers can repair the vehicles which they are used to working with but that comes with cost logistical complexity and crucially delays because it means those vehicles are out of action for long periods of time when they are needed on the front line so we understand America President Biden considering relaxing that position it would allow American citizens into the war zone while working for the US government now to the up this point there are not uh other than soldiers protecting diplomatic missions uh in keev there are not conventional NATO forces deployed inside Ukraine precisely because NATO does not want to create the opportunity for this to escalate into a direct conflict between NATO and Russia but but with the news that North Korea is sending troops with the news that America may send contractors to Ukraine that inches one step closer to that uh highrisk scenario where this conflict could spiral also worth noting that Russia in order to maintain its forces in Ukraine has we understand news out today enlisted around 10,000 naturalized Russian citizens now these are Central Asian citizens who’ve been given Uh Russian nationality around 10,000 of them we understand have been sent to the front lines in Ukraine and that’s just a a little vignette gives us some idea of these struggles both both sides of this conflict are having in finding the Warm Bodies the young men and women to prosecute this war because they’ve suffered both sides have suffered such heavy casualties we know that Ukraine is under pressure to broaden its mobilization the mechanism of conscription to bring new civilians into uniform to bolster its Armed Forces on the front lines we know that in the past Russia has relied on conscripts and mercenaries and waves of mobilization but both sides both MOS and ke are nervous about broadening those mobilization efforts because it does make does risk making the war more unpopular as people who are not necessarily prepared or willing or volunteering to fight find themselves sucked into the horrific conditions uh on the front line now let’s have a quick look at what’s happening on those front lines most of the fighting is focused invol Chans in the north and in chazi Yar in the east in Chans that’s on the khu front where Russian troops invaded from neighboring belgorod Ukraine appears to have stalled that assault they are making small incremental gains they’ve halted it that they’re claiming territory back off uh the Russians reclaiming their own territory in chazar it’s a slightly different story chazar is one town up the road from bahmut which for many many months was the focus of Russia’s bloodbath meat grinder assaults where thousands of soldiers were sent to their death to to claim small amounts of ground uh dramatic footage of air strikes Russian air strikes on what appear to be Ukrainian positions I mean I was in chazar probably about a year ago now and even then it felt like a ghost town it was deserted uh save for a handful of civilians who’d stayed behind and Ukrainian soldiers who were holding the lines but as we drove around it was just a deafening and terrifying sound of explosions all around us and that was while bahmut was still parts of B were still in Ukrainian hands that is no longer uh the case uh in breaking news a Ukrainian drone strike appears to have hit a chemical plant deep inside Russia that’s a plant in ver region I think I’m pronouncing that correctly at least four drones we understand have hit that plant more than 300 miles inside Russia and I understand that this chemical plant made additives uh which were put in jet fuel for Russian aircraft uh this is part of a much broader campaign a long running wide ranging campaign to degrade Russian facilities industrial facilities deep inside Russian territory that campaign has caused unase among some of Ukraine’s Partners particularly among the Americans but it has squarely had the backing of other nations including uh the United Kingdom which has said it would be ridiculous to try and stop Ukraine doing that ridiculous to limit Ukraine’s uh counterattacks to uh its own territory given that it is being attacked by the whole of Russia two other things to mention Ukraine has claimed that over the course of the six months of this year it has shot down more than 80% almost 90% of the shahad kamakazi drones these are the iranian-made and Iranian designed oneway attack drones uh which Russia has been using relatively uh simple drones by the standard of some of them now involved in the conflict but nonetheless devastating they’ve played an important role for Russia both in uh give amplifying its resources giving it access to a large stockpile of readymade weapons they’ve been crucial in trying to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses often what we would see is a large number of Shah heads sent in towards targets to try and to force Ukraine to reveal its air defenses or to overwhelm them before perhaps cruise missiles or other weapons are launched uh in the second wave or sort of simultaneously to try and hit high value targets now Ukraine’s Air Force said that it shot down about 1,00 out of almost 2,300 of those Shad drones over the course of this year anecdotally we also understand that this hasn’t come from the same source that Ukraine has found ways of spoofing and interfering with the guidance systems of these drones so while they’re in Flight uh they can be uh moved off Target sometimes even perhaps turned around finally one thing worth noting four countries Poland lvia Lithuania and Estonia have raised the prospect to the European Union of building a defensive line and I mentioned that uh just before we go into questions because it’s indicative of the concerns those countries feel the countries on Europe’s uh and NATO’s Eastern flag the concerns that they feel about the threat of further Russian aggression the sense from those countries that Ukraine is not the limit of mosco’s ambition and they feel that they may well be attacked they want uh strengthened defenses to deter Russian aggression as ever if you’re watching on YouTube and you do have any questions please ask them in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer some of them next week we had a fantastic response to last week show about 1,500 comments uh dozens and dozens of questions I’m going to try and rattle through a few more than I would normally because there uh were so many a lot of people uh comparing Vladimir Putin’s visit to North Korea uh to to the scenes of Hitler and musolini together before uh the out break of World War II asking what Vladimir Putin was hoping to get out of that visit asking whether or not crucially his visit to North Korea is a sign of desperation well certainly President Putin has become something of a pariah over the course of this war there are only a handful of countries he has visited since he invaded uh Ukraine but they they include North Korea they include China they include the United Arab Emirates uh and Saudi Arabia uh some of those countries are supporting Russia more openly and more significantly North Korea perhaps foremost among them uh with its promise of huge quantities and indeed it Supply huge quantities of artillery shells uh Saudi Arabia perhaps playing more of a uh discreet role perhaps also as broker between President Putin and the West there are a number of countries it would be very dangerous for President Putin to visit because he is a wanted war criminal there is an arrest warrant has been issued by the international criminal court and any countries that are signaries to the Rome statute that founded the ICC would be obliged to arrest him were he to visit but having said that we understand and we touched on this last week Russia continues to try and coral a block an international block of Nations who are sympathetic to its arguments who are pro-russian anti-western and who do not support Western sanctions and do not support the West’s support for the war in Ukraine and that’s part of uh his diplomatic maneuvering one of the questions what do we think Putin was attempting to get out of his visit to Vietnam you remember that’s where he went after North Korea last week unclear but perhaps part of that effort to Coral International countries it may also be linked to Russia’s ongoing efforts to secure the parts that Russia needs for its missiles a report out this week from the Royal United Services Institute saying that the West has signally failed to hamstring Russia’s domestic arms industry uh it has failed to stop the import of high-tech Parts which Russia relies on a number of reasons for that in that report well worth reading if you’re interested available from the Royal United Services Institute one of the questions uh at first glance really surprising but perhaps you know more thought through than it might seem why doesn’t the West give uh Ukraine nuclear weapons because Ukraine did have nuclear weapons uh at the fall of the Soviet Union and it gave them up uh in around 1991 in exchange for territorial guarantees uh from the United Kingdom the United States and Russia well the short answer is uh we cannot give Ukraine nuclear weapons because there are a series of um anti-proliferation treaties which are Central to what the West would call the rule-based order and attempts to control legitimate sensible attempts to control the spread of nuclear uh weapons it would also be just a spectacular escalation to try and arm Ukraine with nuclear weapons and what purpose would it serve uh the last thing anybody would want to see was Ukraine using nuclear weapons You could argue well if they had nukes Russia would not have invaded in the first place that may well have been the case but they don’t have nuclear weapons no one uh is seriously considering as I am aware uh transferring nuclear happens to Ukraine uh it would be a spectacular escalation and push the world much closer to the brink of a conflict of a nuclear conflict that nobody wants two more questions if Ukraine cannot stop Russia’s cruise missiles how is it going to defend its f-16s it’s a good question we’ve seen a lot of cruise missiles getting through recently president zeleski has been banging the drum insisting he needs more Patriot missile systems those are the most sophisticated systems which can stop cruise missiles so the first point is is Ukraine’s air defenses can stop cruise missiles I’ve seen the remnants of a kinal Russian Hypersonic missile uh which has been shot down by a patriot system uh that’s what I was told by a forensic laboratory uh in keev who had collated a lot of Russia’s most sophisticated weapons we know the Patriots can do the job the problem is Ukraine doesn’t have enough clearly where it keeps its f-16s as in when they arrive uh will be key to protecting them uh we will expect those air bases to be thoroughly defended by some of the most sophisticated air defenses Ukraine has available and crucially it will also be really important how Ukraine uses those f-16s and if it is planning to send them on offensive operations to strike targets uh at or behind the front lines then there will have to be an extraordinary amount of complex and well thought through military planning to make sure Ukraine disables the air defenses the Russian air defenses in the area where those f-16s are planning to operate in order to sort of clear a path for them to do their work and finally what is the best outcome for the west from this conflict that is a really good question ostensibly what the wests stated or at least what Ukraine’s allies stated objectives uh have been since the beginning is to support Ukraine defend its sovereignty but most of Ukraine’s allies have been clear that how this war ends the terms that Ukraine accepts for peace must be decided by Ukraine now the message from keev the message from president zy has consistently been that they want to return all of Ukrainian territory they want NATO membership they want EU membership to ensure this never happens again Russia has repeated a number of times over the last few days and week weeks uh that that is those terms are absolutely unacceptable and it will only consider peace if Ukraine seeds even more territory than it has already lost uh Russia wants hon donbas denet luhansk and zapia uh provinces which it has not which has failed to capture thus far it’s captured large parts of them but not all of them that’s all we’ve got time for today if you’re watching on YouTube uh please do ask your comments in the questions below and as ever we will do our best to answer uh some of them next week

Raising the stakes of the war in Ukraine, America and North Korea both appear to be on the cusp of sending their citizens. In North Korea’s case soldiers to fight on opposite sides of the blood bath battle filed.

The Sun delivers breaking news, latest gossip and incredible exclusives around the world with hubs in London, New York, Scotland and Ireland.
Covering topics from news, money and sport along with our famous Fabulous Magazine, The Sun is the biggest news brand in the UK and one of the fastest growing news sites in the US.

Stay tuned for video clips across the biggest news stories and segments from The Sun’s expert journalists.

Become a Sun Subscriber and hit the bell to be the first to know.

Read The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sunyoutubesitelink
Like The Sun on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thesun/
Follow The Sun on X: https://twitter.com/TheSun
Follow The Sun on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesun
Subscribe to The Sun on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/The_Sun/1633225139
#TheSun #ukraine #russia #northkorea