‘This Is an Escalation’ – Ukraine at War Update for Oct. 29

As NATO and Ukraine’s Western allies this week officially confirmed the participation of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky now has put the total figure of Pyongyang’s troops at approaching 12,000.

Zelensky warned that there were already around 3,000 North Korean soldiers on Russian territory, and another 9,000 expected briefly.

“We think that they will have 12,000 soon,” Zelensky said at a press conference in Iceland on Monday, AFP reported.

His chief of staff, Andriy Yermak added on social media, “This is an escalation. Sanctions alone are not enough. We need weapons and a clear plan to prevent North Korea’s expanded involvement in the war in Europe.”

“The enemy understands strength,” Yemawrote. “Our allies have this strength.”

Yermak was responding to comments by NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte, who, after speaking with South Korean military intelligence officials, on Monday confirmed the presence of Pyongyang’s foot soldiers in Eastern Europe.

Rutte also reported that more than 600,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February started in 2022. He underscored that Moscow could not sustain its years-long “special operation” without foreign assistance.

On Monday, the administration of US President Joe Biden also signed off on the estimated figure of 10,000 North Korean troops participating in the war, and warned Pyongyang’s allies in China that their support of this deployment, and Moscow’s illegal invasion in general, would be “destabilizing” and “very dangerous.”

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While the exact contents of the containers from North Korea are unclear, analysts estimate 80-95% are ammunition – mainly 152mm and 122mm artillery shells – with 5-20% being other weapons.

“We believe that [North Korea] has sent around 10,000 soldiers in total to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told a press conference.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller added that Beijing should be “concerned about this destabilizing action by two of its neighbors, Russia and North Korea.”

Moscow’s bombs blast iconic skyscraper in Kharkiv, injuring six civilians

The regional governor of Kharkiv reported on Monday that Russian air strikes smashed the iconic Derzhprom building in the region’s capital, a UNESCO-identified skyscraper that has become the symbol of Ukraine’s second-largest city. It is one of the sites on UNESCO's Tentative List of monuments for consideration for inclusion in its World Heritage List, AFP reported.

“There has been a direct hit recorded on the Derzhprom building,” regional governor Oleg Synegubov wrote on Telegram, posting photos showing a hole blasted in the facade, blown-out windows, and smashed interiors. The building also suffered minor damage during a missile attack in January this year.

“With the attack, preliminarily believed to be carried out by guided bombs, the occupiers struck a landmark symbol of the city that every Kharkiv inhabitant knows,” the governor posted. “This is a monument of national significance, a building in the Constructivist style,” he added.

The modernist edifice was opened in 1928, AFP described, a complex of state administrative buildings connected by overhead bridges. It is considered one of the first Soviet skyscrapers, a precursor to the famous “Seven Sisters” in Moscow, Stalinist skyscrapers built between 1947 and 1957 and at that time the tallest buildings in Europe. (The tallest, the building still home to Moscow State University, stands at 36 stories.)

The attack injured at least six people and also damaged the building of a medical institution.

Sweden announces €63 million for Ukraine, via Danish-led project to boost domestically produced weapons, missiles for F-16s, etc.

On Monday, Stockholm announced an allocation of €63 million in aid to Kyiv, including a €20 million donation to buy locally made weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), as part of a Danish-led initiative to purchase weapons from Ukrainian manufacturers.

Ukrainska Pravda reported that the remaining €43 million will support other multilateral initiatives aimed at supporting Ukraine.

Last week, the Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) decided to negotiate this agreement with Copenhagen to donate a matching amount of military aid to Ukraine. The funds will go toward air-to-air missiles for Ukraine’s F-16 program, a coalition that is training Ukrainian marines, training for mine clearance, and information technology projects.

Ukrainska Pravda explained that this latest tranche is part of a new military aid package to Kyiv worth more than €400 million which Stockholm unveiled in September. This includes possible training for Ukrainian pilots in the Swedish-made Gripen fighter aircraft.

While there are no immediate plans to send Ukraine the much-sought-after Saab-made jets, as the newest NATO member wants to ensure it has enough for its own Air Force, Sweden has by no means ruled out the possibility.  

In fact, about half of September’s package worth about $440 million is intended to purchase new “materiel kits” for the Gripen fighters, albeit for a version older than the latest, state-of-the-art Gripen JAS-39E, which has a longer range and a larger payload than the Gripen JAS-39D potentially on offer.