World
Kremlin dismisses reports North Korean troops fighting in Ukraine
The statement comes after the British newspaper The Guardian reported on Thursday that senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul had said North Korean military engineers and troops had been sent to Ukraine.
The Kremlin has dismissed reports that North Korea has sent soldiers to Ukraine to support Russian troops in the war.
“This looks like another bit of fake news,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.
That comes after the British newspaper The Guardian reported on Thursday that senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul had said North Korean military engineers had been deployed to help Russia target Ukraine with ballistic missiles.
The newspaper also said that North Korean troops were fighting in Ukraine and that some had been killed, according to an anonymous source.
According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, the defence chief in Seoul said earlier this month that North Korea was likely to deploy members of its armed forces to support Russia in Ukraine.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has become one of Putin’s key allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Having anticipated a swift victory, Putin has instead seen his forces severely depleted as the Ukrainians fight back with advanced weaponry donated by Western allies.
At the same time, Russia has been hit with harsh sanctions by the West, making it harder to import military hardware and supplies or the components needed to produce them.
The Russian army has deployed Iranian-designed drones and missiles in Ukraine, but reports indicate it has also been relying on North Korean support.
The US claims that more than 16,000 shipping containers containing munitions have been dispatched to Russia from North Korea.
Germany’s chief defence official said the purpose of the shipments is likely to keep Russian domestic stocks up while manufactured weapons are sent for use in Ukraine.
Pyongyang, meanwhile, is suffering from deep economic problems after decades of dictatorship and sanctions, and food security remains a major problem.
Kim personally visited Putin in Russia in September, travelling via train on his first foreign excursion since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trip saw him inspect Russian rocket parts and a launch site, with Putin saying the isolated totalitarian country is interested in developing its own space programme.
In June, Kim and Putin signed a mutual defence pact which includes a clause obliging the countries to come to each other’s defence if either is attacked.
ADVERTISEMENTIn January, US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Russia had uses ballistic missiles and launchers supplied by North Korea on the battlefield in Ukraine.
And Ukrainians on the ground say they have found missile parts bearing characters from the Korean alphabet.
Moscow has always denied it uses North Korean weaponry in Ukraine.
On Thursday, Yonhap quoted a spokesperson for the US State Department as saying that reports of North Korean soldiers killed in Ukraine shows Russia’s “profound” desperation to secure outside support for its war effort.
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World
Dozens wounded, at least 22 killed in airstrikes in Beirut as tensions escalate in Israel conflict with Iran
An air raid on Beirut left at least 22 people dead and dozens of others wounded after Israeli airstrikes pummeled neighborhoods in Lebanon, according to the Associated Press.
The latest attack, the deadliest one in over a year of war between the embattled countries, further escalated the conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Lebanon’s health ministry told the AP that the air strikes targeted two residential buildings in separate neighborhoods at the same time, demolishing the eight-story building and taking out the lower floors of the other.
The Israeli military told the AP it was investigating the reported strikes. Israeli airstrikes have become more prevalent in Beirut’s tightly packed southern suburbs, where Hezbollah bases a large portion of its operations.
ISRAEL HIT WITH MULTIPLE TERRORIST ATTACKS AS HEZBOLLAH ROCKET KILLS 2 ISRAELIS WHILE WALKING DOGS
Debris and damage surround the site of an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar) (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
The attack came the same day as Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and wounded two of them, the AP reported.
Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but interrupting daily life for people in the country.
1 YEAR AFTER HEZBOLLAH STRIKES, ISRAEL REINFORCES TROOPS AND QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER ‘LIMITED’ OPERATION
A man uses his mobile phone as flames and smoke rise at the scene of buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
The attacks across Israel come as the Jewish nation finds itself embroiled in multiple conflicts with Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Biden spoke on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s anticipated retaliatory attack against Iran following its massive missile strike on Israel last week, reported Israeli news outlets.
NETANYAHU CONFIRMS NASRALLAH’S REPLACEMENT DEAD: ‘THOUSANDS OF TERRORISTS’ KILLED
People carry a body at the scene of destroyed buildings hit by an Israeli airstrike in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
The Biden administration has grown increasingly frustrated with Israel over its withholding of security details and had previously urged it not to launch an incursion into Lebanon against Hezbollah over concerns it could prompt a broader regional war.
The White House has urged Israel not to hit Iranian nuclear or oil facilities and to keep its retaliation “proportionate,” though the administration has not specified what this type of attack would look like.
Roughly 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon since the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel escalated last month. More than 400,000 people have fled Lebanon into Syria, and roughly 1,400 people have been killed based on numbers provided by the Lebanese Health Ministry and the number of combatants believed to have been killed by Israel. Some 70,000 Israelis have been forced out of the country’s northern communities since the start of the conflict.
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Many Florida residents were returning to their homes Thursday after Hurricane Milton pummelled the state, the second major hurricane in two weeks.
Millions of people in several counties had been ordered to evacuate earlier this week as Milton approached.
Siblings Saboria, 4, left, and Messiah Tyler, 3, nap in the backseat of a car after the roof was torn off the home where they lived with their mom, grandparents, an aunt and an uncle during the passage of Hurricane Milton, in Palmetto, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. The family of 7 rode out the storm in a government shelter, and returned home to find most of the roof gone and their furniture and belongings destroyed by rainwater. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
In Palmetto, southwest of Tampa, resident Natasha Ducre and her family of seven returned from a government shelter to find their home demolished and unlivable — furniture and other belongings destroyed by heavy rainwater. The roof in her kitchen had collapsed, with debris now carpeting the floor. Their home destroyed, siblings Saboria, 4, and Messiah Tyler, 3, had nowhere to sleep but the backseat of a car.
The roof of the Tropicana Field is damaged the morning after Hurricane Milton hit the region, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Farther north in St. Petersburg, powerful winds and rain shredded the roof of the Tropicana Field Stadium, home to the Tampa Bay Rays of Major League Baseball, where several stadium workers were taking shelter. The team said it may take weeks to fully assess how much damage was done.
Max Watts, of Buford, Ga., walks in the parking lot to check on a trailer parked outside the hotel where he is riding out Hurricane Milton with coworkers, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. Watts, who works for a towing company, was deployed with colleagues to Florida to aid in the aftermath of the storm. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The Segundo family, who evacuated from nearby Davis Island, plays a board game with their dog Cassie looking on, as Hurricane Milton makes landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast, at Hyatt Place Tampa Downtown hotel in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A man rests as other carry supplies into Gibbs High School, a government storm shelter where 1,700 people had already sought shelter by late morning, ahead of the arrival Hurricane Milton, in St. Petersburg, Fla., Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Milton slammed into Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday, killing at least 5 people, spawning tornadoes and leaving more than 3 million homes and businesses without power. The state’s central Gulf Coast was hardest hit by the outages, including Hardee, Sarasota, Hillsborough and Manatee counties.
The storm came after Hurricane Helene ravaged several southeastern states as a Category 4 storm, killing more than 220 people.
A water rescue boat moves in floodwaters at an apartment complex in the aftermath of hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A man and child leave a rescue boat after high floodwaters entered their apartment in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A water rescue team member walks through flood waters at an apartment complex in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A high rise construction crane broke apart and crashed into the building across the street during Hurricane Milton on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Carlson)
A house, center, lies toppled off its stilts after the passage of Hurricane Milton, alongside an empty lot where a home was swept away by Hurricane Helen, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
A car is submerged in floodwater at an apartment complex in the aftermath of Hurricane Milton, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, in Clearwater, Fla. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Ron Rook, who said he was looking for people in need of help or debris to clear, walks through windy and rainy conditions on a deserted street in downtown Tampa, Fla., during the approach of Hurricane Milton, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
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