Russian defense minister visits North Korea – DW – 11/29/2024

Russia sentenced jailed former Moscow city councilor Alexei Gorinov to three additional years in prison for criticizing Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

He is already serving a seven-year prison sentence for public criticism of the invasion.

On Friday, a court in the city of Vladimir, some 198 kilometers (123 miles) northeast of Moscow, handed him the new sentence on charges of “justifying terrorism” and ordered that he be transferred to a maximum-security prison.

“I am for peace and you like war,” Gorinov said after the sentence was announced, according to Russian independent news portal Mediazona.

The court accused Gorinov of delivering a speech calling for Moscow to end the war in Ukraine and convince inmates to adopt an “ideology of terrorism.”

“Let’s stop this slaughter that nobody needs — not us, not the citizens of Ukraine,” Gorinov said in a video recorded in a prison hospital, according to the court.

“The guilt that I have is that I, as a citizen of my country, let this war happen and was not able to stop it.”

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock is set to visit China next week, where she will discuss issues such as the war in Ukraine, a ministry spokesperson said.

Western leaders have accused China of supporting Russia’s war effort by providing dual-use items. Russia saw a surge in Chinese imports starting in 2023.

China has not imposed sanctions on Russia and has called for a negotiated settlement to the war.

The director of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Tamar Gabelnick, said that a US offer to provide Kyiv with anti-personnel mines has thrown a global treaty into “crisis.”

Ukraine is one of the 164 signatories to the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention. The United States is not party to the treaty.

While speaking at a meeting of signatories in the Cambodian city of Siem Reap, Gabelnick said that the ICBL hoped “the mines offered by the US will be firmly rejected by Ukraine.”

Ukrainian defense official Yevhenii Kivshyk said at the same conference that that Kyiv’s delegation had “heard some concerns raised by the community” that “will be conveyed to the government of Ukraine.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called Washington’s offer “very important” for fending off Russian attacks.

The international ban on landmines, known as the Ottawa Treaty, was signed in 1997 and prohibits the use, stockpiling, manufacturing or transfer of the weapons.

In a statement last week, ICBL warned of the “human cost” of the potential anti-personnel mine transfer from Washington.

“Ukraine already faces decades of demining work due to extensive Russian landmine use. Adding new mines to this contamination will only extend the suffering of civilians and complicate post-conflict recovery efforts,” the group stressed.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov arrived in Pyongyang for talks with North Korean officials and lauded expanding military cooperation between the two countries.

Belousov said that a strategic partnership signed between North Korea and Russia in June aimed to lower the risk of war by maintaining a “balance of power” in the region.

North Korean Defense Minister No Kwang-chol called Russia’s war effort in Ukraine a “just struggle to protect the country’s sovereign rights and security interests.”

As Belousov arrived in Pyongyang, North Korean military officials were seen clapping under a banner that read: “Complete support and solidarity with the fighting Russian army and people.”

Belousov is a former economist and replaced Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in May.

The Russian official’s visit comes days after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov in Seoul.

Earlier this month, Ukraine reported its forces’ first clash with North Korean troops who had been deployed to the Russian border region of Kursk.

The Ukrainian military said it struck an oil depot in the Rostov region in Russia’s northern Caucasus.

“Atlas is part of the Russian military-industrial complex that supplies petroleum products to the Russian army,” Ukraine’s military said on the Telegram messaging service.

According to the same statement, Kyiv also struck a radar station used in Russian air defense in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Zaporizhzhia is one of the four Ukrainian regions Russia claimed to have annexed in September 2022.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for Ukraine and its allies to consider diplomatic solutions to end the war with Russia.

“Russia must not win this war,” Merkel stressed in an interview with German broadcaster ZDF, adding that Moscow’s invasion was a “blatant violation of international law.”

Merkel said that she worked to prevent escalation of tensions with Moscow during her time as chancellor from 2005 to 2021.

It is “not only in the interest of Ukraine but also in our interest that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] does not win this war,” she said.

However, Merkel also stressed the need to “always consider diplomatic solutions in parallel” to continued military support.

She said Kyiv and its allies will have to decide together when “the right time” has come for negotiations.

Merkel said she supported the government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s policies on Ukraine, stressing that Berlin is one of Kyiv’s biggest supporters.

“I support everything the international community is doing to put Ukraine in a good position,” she said, adding that it would not be easy for Kyiv to achieve military victory against Moscow.

sdi/zc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)