MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Friday declined to comment on reports that North Korean soldiers fighting with Russia’s army had been pulled back from the front line.
Western, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence agencies say Pyongyang had deployed more than 10,000 troops to support Russia’s forces fighting in its western Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a cross-border offensive.
Citing US and Ukrainian officials, the New York Times on Thursday reported that the North Korean troops had been pulled back from the front and had not been seen fighting there for around two weeks, after suffering heavy casualties in combat.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Wednesday said that “some North Korean units have been pulled back from the front line in the Kursk region, according to reports from Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.”
Asked on Friday about the reports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.
“There are a lot of different arguments out there, both right and wrong,” he told reporters.
“It’s not worth commenting on every time,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has published footage of what he said were captured North Korean soldiers taken by Ukraine’s forces in the Kursk region.
Kyiv and the West decried the deployment of North Korean fighters as a major escalation in the three-year conflict.
Kremlin declines to comment on reports N.Koreans withdrawn from front
https://arab.news/6gnt7
Kremlin declines to comment on reports N.Koreans withdrawn from front
- Citing US and Ukrainian officials, the New York Times on Thursday reported that the North Korean troops had been pulled back from the front and had not been seen fighting there
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “There are a lot of different arguments out there, both right and wrong“
Brazil’s Lula accuses Trump of seeking to forge ‘new UN’
- Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs
- Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts
BRASILIA: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva accused Donald Trump on Friday of trying to create “a new UN” with his proposed “Board of Peace.”
The veteran leftist joins other world leaders who have avoided signing up for Trump’s new global conflict resolution organization, where a permanent seat costs $1 billion and the chairman is Trump himself.
“Instead of fixing” the United Nations, “what’s happening? President Trump is proposing to create a new UN where only he is the owner,” Lula said.
Trump unveiled his “Board of Peace” at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos Thursday, joined on stage by leaders and officials from 19 countries to sign its founding charter.
Lula defended multilateralism against what he called “the law of the jungle” in global affairs.
His remarks come a day after he spoke by phone with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who urged his counterpart to safeguard the “central role” of the United Nations in international affairs.
In his remarks on Friday, Lula said “the UN charter is being torn.”
Although originally intended to oversee Gaza’s rebuilding, the board’s charter does not seem to limit its role to the Palestinian territory and appears to want to rival the United Nations.
Key US allies including France and Britain have also expressed doubts.
London balked at the inclusion of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose forces are fighting in Ukraine after invading in 2022.
France said the charter as it currently stood was “incompatible” with its international commitments, especially its UN membership.
