Russian defense minister visits North Korea – DW – 11/30/2024

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov on Friday and called for a further boost to both sides’ already close military partnership.

Kim also slammed the US for allowing Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia with US weapons, describing it as a “direct military intervention in the conflict.”

“The US and the West made Kyiv authorities attack Russia’s territory with their own long-range strike weapons” and Russia should take action to make “hostile forces pay the price,” KCNA news agency quoted Kim as saying.

Russia and North Korea have strengthened their defense ties since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The two countries forged a strategic military partnership in June.

Kim’s regime has reportedly dispatched thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for NATO to offer security guarantees to parts of Ukraine controlled by Kyiv in order to “stop the hot stage of the war.”

About one-fifth of Ukrainian territory is currently under Russian control.

Zelenskyy implied that he would be willing to wait to regain that territory, if a deal with NATO could ensure security for the rest of Ukraine and end the fighting.

“If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky told Britain’s Sky News, according to a voiceover translation of his remarks from Ukrainian into English.

“That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically,” he added.

Zelenskyy, however, insisted any offer to join NATO must be given to the whole of Ukraine. “The invitation must be given to Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders. You can’t give an invitation to just one part of a country.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that his government would replace the commander of the military’s land forces.

The change elevated Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi for the post. He is taking over from Lieutenant General Oleksandr Pavliuk, who had been at the helm of the land forces since February 2024, also after in a major shake-up.

The move comes as Ukrainian troops face manpower shortages.

“The main task is to increase noticeably the combat efficiency of our army, ensure the quality of servicemen training, and introduce innovative approaches to people management in Ukraine’s Armed Forces,” Zelenskyy said.

“The Ukrainian army needs internal changes to achieve our state’s goals in full,” he said on Telegram after meeting his top military and government officials.

Drapatyi is said to be well respected in the Ukrainian army. He had taken command of the Kharkiv front in May and managed to stop the Russian offensive in the northeast, stabilizing the front.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, where Scholz sought to reassure Ukraine of Germany’s continued solidarity.

“We will continue our military support for Ukraine in close coordination with our European and international partners,” Scholz said in a post on X after the call.

He said he had agreed with Zelenskyy to remain in contact “also with a view to possible paths to a just peace” to end Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

For his part, Zelenskyy thanked Scholz for Germany’s help and support, particularly with air defense weapons, in a post on his Telegram channel. 

The Ukrainian president said that Scholz had also discussed the details of his recent telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“It is obvious that only the strength of arms and the strength of diplomacy can force the perpetrator of the war to make peace and that this peace can only be achieved through strength,” Zelenskyy said.

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)