Germany hands over first of new howitzers – DW – 01/13/2025

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has handed over the first of 54 planned wheeled howitzers to Ukraine to help bolster artillery capability.

“Ukraine can count on us, and this is a signal. And Germany is ready to assume responsibility in Europe,” Pistorius said the German city of Kassel where the weapons system is produced by tank manufacturer KNDS.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Oleksii Makeiev, symbolically accepted the first of the new German-made RCH 155 self-propelled howitzers for his country.

“We don’t need mediators, we need allies,” said the ambassador.

The RCH 155 artillery system is described by its manufacturer as the “world’s most modern wheeled howitzer,” which makes it possible to fire on the move for the first time.

The European Commission announced a new humanitarian aid package worth €140 million ($142.8 million) to assist in eastern and southern Ukraine.

The funding is earmarked to help provide food, shelter, clean water, health care and winter protection for those in war-torn regions, the commission said in a statement.

This would bring the total humanitarian aid allocation from the European Commission to over €1.1 billion.

A further €8 million has been allocated for humanitarian projects in neighboring Moldova to help Ukrainian refugees and host communities.

The commission said that around 12.7 million people were in desperate need of assistance as “Russia’s war of aggression continues to devastate Ukraine.”

The announcement of further aid comes as EU Crisis Commissioner Hadja Lahbib visits Ukraine where she is expected to meet a number of leaders including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The UK’s Ministry of Defense said that Russia had deployed around 1,700 One Way Attack Uncrewed Aerial Systems (OWA UAS) into Ukraine over December.

The MOD’s intelligence update on the war in Ukraine stated that this was a decrease from the 2,300 deployed during November and said that weather conditions may have played a roll in the drop in numbers.

The MOD said that Ukraine’s air force had reported shooting down 53% of the drones while the remainder were disrupted using electronic warfare, or had flown off course.

The MOD said it was likely that Russia could sustain launching in excess of at least 1,500 drones per month.

State-run Russian media agency TASS reported that Russian forces took control of the village of Pishchane in the Donetsk region, citing the Defense Ministry.

The captured village is situated around 8 kilometers (5 miles) southwest of Pokrovsk which is home to Ukraine’s most important coal mine.

The mine’s owner, Metinvest, said last month it had halted operations at the site and evacuated all personnel.

Russia has been trying to capture the crucial supply hub for months. Should the city fall, Russia would gain access to important roads and railway connections which could serve as a gateway to the neighboring Dnipro-Petrovsk region.

Russia’s Defense Ministry has accused Ukraine of launching a drone strike on the TurkStream pipeline that channels Russian gas to Europe via Turkey.

“On January 11, the Kyiv regime, in order to cut off gas supplies to European countries, attempted an attack with nine drones,” Moscow’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the attack targeted a compressor station in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia, but the facility was working normally and there had been no casualties.

The claims could not be independently verified.

The gas pipeline begins at the Russkaya (Russian) compressor station outside the city of Anapa in Russia’s Krasnador region and runs to Kiyikoy in Turkey, and then onwards to Europe. Compressor stations are used to stabilize the pressure and flow rate of gas.

Ukraine’s air force said that air defense had downed 78 out of 110 Russian drones launched in an overnight wave attack.

“The air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare units, and mobile fire groups of the Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine,” the Air Force said in a statement on the Telegram messaging service.

It also said that drone debris damaged several business and residential buildings in four Ukrainian regions in the center, north, and southeast.

Russia frequently carries out attacks with Iran-supplied Shahed drones in the early hours of the morning. 

North Korean troops appear to have orders to commit suicide to evade capture, South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun cited South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS).

The agency said memos found on dead North Korean soldiers indicated that they had been ordered to commit suicide before being captured, according to Lee.

“It was also found in the memos carried by those killed that North Korean authorities emphasized self-destruction and suicide before capture, and that soldiers vaguely expect to join the Workers’ Party [of North Korea] or be pardoned,” Lee said.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday Kyiv is ready to hand over North Korean soldiers to their leader Kim Jong Un in exchange for the return of Ukrainians held captive in Russia.

“In addition to the first captured soldiers from North Korea, there will undoubtedly be more. It’s only a matter of time before our troops manage to capture others,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media.

The Ukrainian president shared a video depicting the interrogation of two North Korean prisoners of war.

In the video, one prisoner is lying on a bunk bed, while the other is sitting up in bed with a bandage wrapped around his jaw.

Zelenskyy added that there may be other options available for those North Korean soldiers who do not wish to return and “those who express a desire to bring peace closer by spreading the truth about this war in the Korean [language] will be given that opportunity.” 

South Korea’s spy agency said that North Korean troop fatalities and injuries in Russia’s war against Ukraine had likely passed the 3,000 mark.

“The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia has reportedly expanded to include the Kursk region, with estimates suggesting that casualties among North Korean forces have surpassed 3,000,” South Korean lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun told reporters following a briefing from the intelligence agency.

The number includes “approximately 300 deaths and 2,700 injuries,” Lee said.

In October last year, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said that Pyongyang was sending as many as 12,000 troops to Russia as it continued its invasion of Ukraine.

A defense pact signed between Pyongyang and Moscow in June took effect in December.

The agreement obligates both states to provide military assistance in the case of an attack on the other, and to jointly oppose Western sanctions.

kb/ab (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)