Ukraine updates: S. Korea considers sending weapons to Kyiv

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected Ukraine's immediate NATO membership request presented by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"It is important to realize that a country at war absolutely cannot become a member of NATO," Scholz told German public broadcaster ZDF. "Everyone knows that, there is no disagreement on this subject."

Last week, Zelenskyy urged European leaders to immediately invite Ukraine to join NATO as part of his "victory plan" to end the war by 2025.

Scholz, however, said, "an invitation is normally quite quickly linked to membership."

Ukraine's military intelligence services on Thursday claimed North Korean troops have now been deployed to the Kursk region — a Russian border area into which Ukraine has made incursions.

Intelligence services claims that some 12,000 troops, including 500 hundred officers and three generals, are now preparing to enter the conflict.

In a statement, Kyiv said, "Moscow has appointed Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov responsible for control of the training and adaptation of North Korean troops."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking from the BRICS summit he is currently hosting in the city of Kazan, did not deny that North Korean troops are in Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, saying: "We are in cooperation with our North Korean friends. What we do is our business."

 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for peace in global flashpoints including Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.

Guterres was addressing BRICS leaders including Russian President Vladimir Putin in Kazan.

"Across the board, we need peace," Guterres said.

"We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and UN General Assembly resolutions."

Guterres' attendance at the summit, which is being hosted by Russia, has been criticized by Ukraine, after he declined to attend an invitation to Ukraine's "peace summit" over the summer in Switzerland. 

"The UN Secretary-General declined Ukraine's invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. He did, however, accept the invitation to Kazan from war criminal Putin," Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said in a post on X earlier this week. 

Guterres' spokesperson said the trip to Russia was part of his regular attendance at "organizations with large numbers of important member states" and said it offered a chance to "reaffirm his well known positions" on the Ukraine conflict "and the conditions for just peace."

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday warned were "illusory" attempts by opponents to try and defeat Russia on the battlefield.

Russia's opponents "do not conceal their aim to deal our country a strategic defeat," Putin said.

"I will say directly that these are illusory calculations, that can be made only by those who do not know Russia's history."

As the war grinds on, Russian forces are making hard-earned, incremental gains along a frontline in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region. However, Russia's gains have come at an enormous cost in material and manpower. 

Putin was speaking on the final day of the BRICS summit in Kazan, which is the largest international forum hosted by Putin since he launched the war on Ukraine in February 2022. The summit has been seen as a chance for the Kremlin to show that any political isolation of Russia during its invasion of Ukraine doesn't extend far past NATO's borders. 

Putin has demanded Ukraine surrender territory in its south and east as a precondition for a cease-fire, a position Kyiv has called "absurd."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week toured European capitals pitching his "victory plan." Speaking to EU leaders in Brussels, Zelenskyy said the plan would "force Russia into a just peace."

Zelenskyy's victory plan does not include an offer to relinquish Ukrainian territories that were occupied or annexed by Russia in violation of international law.

Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, millions of people have been displaced and thousands of civilians have been killed.

Putin has an outstanding International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant hanging over his head in connection with allegations of forced relocation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

His country is also currently under a raft of international sanctions. 

The office of Ukraine's prosecutor general said that Russian forces executed four captured Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian prosecutor general's office said that four servicemen were captured on October 6 near the town of Selydove, where Russian forces are advancing.

"The next day, the Defence Forces regained their lost positions and found the bodies of the killed Ukrainian servicemen during a search operation," the prosecutor general said in a statement.

"The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and is classified as a serious international crime," said the statement adding that a war crime investigation had been initiated.

Moscow hasn't responded as yet to the claims and the allegations cannot be independently verified.

Both Russia and Ukraine have accused each others' soldiers of executing prisoners of war.

Kharkiv's regional governor said that four people were wounded after a Russian strike on the frontline town of Kupiansk in the northeast of Ukraine.

Regional governor Oleh Synehubov corrected an earlier statement in which he had said two people were killed with information that four people were injured.

"The enemy struck near a shop and the town market," Synehubov said in his initial statement.

Kupiansk and surrounding villages were occupied by the Russian forces for nearly seven months until they were driven out by the Ukrainian army in September 2022.

Russian forces have in recent months been advancing slowly back towards the town and are now less than 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) away from its northern outskirts according to open-source maps.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has warned that Seoul "won’t sit idle" over North Korea's reported movement of troops into Russia for possible deployment in Russia's war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, US National Security Adviser John Kirby told a White House press briefing that at least 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been moved into eastern Russia between early and mid-October.

"We dont' know whether these soldiers will enter into combat alongside the Russian military, but this is certainly a highly concerning probability," Kirby said. 

South Korea is one of the world's top weapons exporters, but Seoul has long resisted calls from the US and others to supply Ukraine with weapons. 

However, on Thursday, Seoul said it would "review" potentially supplying Ukraine with weapons. Yoon said Thursday that South Korea would "take necessary actions in cooperation with the international community."

"While we have maintained a principle of not directly supplying lethal weapons, we may review this more flexibly depending on the actions of North Korean forces," he told a press conference after meeting with Polish President Andrzej Duda on Thursday in Seoul. 

Yoon and Duda met to discuss strategic ties and finalize a new contract to export South Korean K-2 tanks to Poland by the end of the year.

Both leaders condemned the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia saying it presented a global threat.

"We agreed that North Korea's troop deployment to Russia, which is in direct violation of the UN charter and UN Security Council resolutions, is a provocation that threatens global security," Yoon said after the talks.

South Korean lawmakers on Wednesday said that North Korea has already sent 3,000 troops to Russia citing information from national intelligence, adding that 10,000 were expected to be in Russia by December.

Russian lawmakers on Thursday voted unanimously to ratify a defense treaty with North Korea.

The treaty provides for "mutual assistance" in the event of either party facing aggression.

Last week, President Vladimir Putin submitted the text on ratifying the treaty on strategic partnership with North Korea.

Politicians in the lower house State Duma voted 397 to 0 to ratify the treaty, which will be now sent to the upper Federation Council for approval. Both houses of parliament act as rubber stamps for the Kremlin.

The vote by lawmakers comes after the governments of the US and South Korea said there was evidence that Pyongyang had sent thousands of troops to assist Russia in Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit to Pyongyang in June, with the two countries signing a mutual defense agreement fueling speculation of further arms transfers in violation of UN sanctions on both countries.

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