North Korean troops in Ukraine will ‘surely return in body bags’, US warns – live

Ukraine has named three North Korean generals who it claims have accompanied their troops to Russia.

In a statement to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, Ukraine’s delegation said the generals are among at least 500 North Korean officers sent to Russia, reported Reuters.

The statement added that the troops will be formed into at least five formations of 2,000-3,000 soldiers each and integrated into Russian units to hide their presence.

Ukraine named Colonel General Kim Yong-bok, a senior general with command of special forces that South Korean intelligence claims have been deployed to Russia.

The other generals are Colonel General Ri Changho, deputy chief of the general staff and head of the reconnaissance general bureau, and Major General Sin Kum-cheol, head of the main operational directorate.

A Russian guided bomb struck a high-rise apartment block on Wednesday evening in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, killing an 11-year-old child and injuring at least 29.

Kharkiv region governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram that the child had been pulled from under the rubble with severe head wounds and fractures, but did not survive, reported Reuters.

He added that the strike caused a fire and destroyed most of one entrance.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram: “Our partners can see what is happening every day. And in these conditions, every decision that is put off means, at the very least, dozens of lives and hundreds of Russian bombs used against Ukraine.”

Prosecutors plan to argue that a Massachusetts Air National Guard member who pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine should serve nearly 17 years in prison.

In a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, prosecutors said Jack Teixeira “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”

“As both a member of the United States Armed Forces and a clearance holder, the defendant took an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets — secrets that are vital to US national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas,” prosecutors wrote. “Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year.”

Teixeira’s attorneys will argue that US District Judge Indira Talwani should sentence him to 11 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced 12 November.

In their sentencing memorandum, they acknowledged that their client “made a terrible decision which he repeated over 14 months.”

Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty in March to six counts of the willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act nearly a year after he was arrested in the most consequential national security leak in years.

The 22-year-old admitted that he illegally collected some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and shared them with other users on the social media platform Discord.

Ukraine could be part of the European Union by 2029 if it completes the necessary reforms, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi said on Tuesday, according to The Kyiv Independent.

The EU had introduced initiatives aimed at accelerating reform processes in Ukraine, Moldova, and the Western Balkans.

“With the Growth Plan, we have made it possible for the Western Balkans, for Moldova, but also for Ukraine [with the Ukraine Facility], to complete the reforms and to have everything ready and to become a member by the end of the next mandate (of the European Commission),” Mr Varhelyi said.

EU leaders agreed in June to start membership negotiations with Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged scores of drone strikes Wednesday as North Korea’s top diplomat arrived in Russia for talks after his country reportedly deployed thousands of soldiers to help Moscow’s war efforts.

Ukraine’s air force said that Russia launched 62 drones and one missile overnight, adding that 33 of them were intercepted and 25 were jammed.

The drones struck a residential building and a kindergarten in Kyiv, injuring nine people, including a child, according to the city administration. “Russian drones did not change their constant tactics – they approached the capital from different directions, at different heights,” it said.

US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday that North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving towards Ukraine.

Mr Austin was speaking at a press conference in Washington with South Korean defence minister Kim Yong-hyun as concerns rise over North Koreans deployed in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Some North Korean advance units have already arrived in the Kursk region, where Russia is fighting a Ukranian incursion, and Mr Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” Moscow will use the troops in combat.

“This is something that we’re going to continue to watch, and we’re going to continue to work with our allies and partners to discourage Russia from employing these troops in combat,” Mr Austin said.

Mr Kim, speaking through an interpreter, said while he doesn’t necessarily believe the deployment will trigger war on the Korean Peninsula, it could increase security threats.

He said there is a “high possibility” that Pyongyang will ask Moscow for technological help to advance its tactical nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities, in exchange for its troops.

The US and South Korea have called on North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia, as Robert Wood, US envoy to the UN, said any North Korean soldiers entering Ukraine would “surely return in body bags”.

The Pentagon has said that 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed by Russia to the frontlines in its war on Ukraine.

“Should DPRK’s troops enter Ukraine in support of Russia, they will surely return in body bags. So I would advise Chairman Kim to think twice about engaging in such reckless and dangerous behaviour,” said Mr Wood.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s envoy to the UN, asked on Wednesday why North Korea could not help Moscow when Western countries claimed the right to help Ukraine.

Russia was accused at a Security Council meeting by the US, Britain, South Korea, Ukraine and their allies of violating UN resolutions and the founding UN Charter with the deployment of troops from North Korea, according to Reuters.

“Supporting an act of aggression, which completely violates the principles of the UN Charter, is illegal,” said South Korea’s UN ambassador Hwang Joonkook.

“Any activities that are entailed with the DPRK’s dispatch of troops to Russia are clear violations of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions.”Mr Nebenzia said Russia’s military agreement with North Korea did not violate international law.

“Even if everything that’s being said about the cooperation between Russia and North Korea by our Western colleagues is true, why is it that the United States and allies are trying to impose on everyone the flawed logic that they have the right to help the Zelensky regime … and Russian allies have no right to do a similar thing?” Mr Nebenzia asked.