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Russian troop casualties may reach around 40,000 for October, Estonian intelligence suggests.
Janek Kesselmann, the deputy commander of the Estonian Military Intelligence Center, told Estonian media EER “Russia’s losses are quite high. And this month seems to be one of the biggest in terms of losses for Russia.”
Kyiv reported that Russian forces had suffered 1,630 casualties on Friday alone breaking the previous second-highest tally of 1,530, set on October 18.
Kesselmann added that Russian tactics have shifted recently so troops no longer enter settlements as it recquires “sophisticated preperation”.
“Therefore, they besiege settlements with indirect fire. After the settlement is surrounded, they simply destroy it. It is a very cynical and disgusting thing,” Kesselmann said.
It came as North Korean troops will be deployed into Ukraine to fight with Russian forces as early as this weekend, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed.
This would be a major escalation in the war with geopolitical consequences now reaching the Indo-Pacific region, western officials warned, as the grinding conflict approaches three years.
Ukrainian intelligence had determined that “the first North Korean military will be used by Russia in combat zones” between Sunday and Monday, Mr Zelensky said.
Vladimir Putin has not denied the presence of North Korean troops in Ukraine.
North Korea doesn’t send enough troops to make difference on battlefield – experts
The US has joined Ukraine and South Korea in confirming reports of North Korea dispatching troops, estimated to be in the thousands, to aid Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
“We are no longer in a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but between Russia, North Korea and Ukraine,” said Marie Dumoulin of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
But analysts said it was unclear how North Korean troops will be used adding the North Korean forces do not have combat experience.
“I don’t think that sending a few thousand North Korean troops, whose level of training we don’t know, will make much difference on the battlefield in operational terms,” said Dumoulin.
“In any case, 10,000 soldiers is not that many,” added Isabelle Facon from the France-based Foundation of Strategic Research.
Barney Davis27 October 2024 01:59
Kremlin denies WSJ report of Elon Musk’s contacts with Putin
The Kremlin has denied a Wall Street Journal report about regular contacts between Elon Musk and President Vladimir Putin.
“No, this is not true,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said that Putin had one contact with Musk – the world’s richest man – and it was before 2022.
The Journal said Musk had been in regular contact with Putin since late 2022. Peskov said the report was absolutely false.
Barney Davis27 October 2024 01:02
Everything we know about Kim Jong-un’s army joining Russian invasion
The US has joined Ukraine and South Korea in confirming reports of North Korea dispatching troops, estimated to be in the thousands, to aid Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Barney Davis27 October 2024 00:01
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff said that a full withdrawal of Russian troops, and not just peace talks, were essential to ending his country’s more than 2-1/2-year-old war against Moscow.
The chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was addressing an international meeting devoted to implementing a peace plan, one of several gatherings staged as a follow-up to last June’s world “peace summit” hosted by Switzerland.
“Don’t expect this war to end when the warring sides begin to talk to each other,” Yermak told the gathering, according to the president’s website.
“Don’t be deceived. This war will end when the last soldier of the occupying army returns home.”
Barney Davis26 October 2024 21:45
‘Unknown gunmen kill one in ambush on Russian military convoy’
One Russian soldier was killed after a planned ambush on a convoy, according to Russian state media.
“Unknown people attacked a military convoy in the Grozny suburbs,” reported Russia’s state-run news agency RIA Novosti.
“One serviceman was killed and a second was wounded. Measures are being taken to find and detain the attackers,” the statement added.
A local resident described the attack as being “rapid and well-coordinated” with the attackers fleeing shortly after.
The witness was unable to describe the gunmen but indicated that there was more than one attacker.
Barney Davis26 October 2024 21:01
Putin sidesteps question on North Korean soldiers training in Russia
Vladimir Putin did not deny reports that North Korea sent troops to Russia to join the Russian president’s war in Ukraine but instead pointed to his country’s recent military treaty with Pyongyang which deals with mutual defence.
Mr Putin was asked by a reporter about satellite imagery apparently showing North Korean troops operating in Russia at a news conference on Thursday during the end of the Brics summit in the Russian city of Kazan.
“Images are a serious matter. If images exist, they indicate something,” Mr Putin said. He went on to attack the US for “escalating tensions in Ukraine” and denounced “direct involvement of Nato troops” in the conflict.
Barney Davis26 October 2024 20:05
Two killed in artillery shelling of Kherson
The head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, reported that two people were killed in an artillery barrage on Stanislav.
“Unfortunately, today the Russian army took the lives of two more people in the Kherson region. Around two o’clock in the afternoon, the enemy fired on Stanislav with artillery.
“Two men were fatally wounded. Both died at the scene. I express my sincere condolences to the families of the victims,” he said.
The Kherson Regional Military Administration added: “A man, 49, sustained blast trauma and concussion. The victim was outside at the time of the strike. He refused to be hospitalized, so medics treated him at the scene.”
Barney Davis26 October 2024 19:01
Body recovered from rubble in Radkove village shelling
Kharviv authorities have revealed the body of a man was found in a house in Radkove in the Chuhuiv district,
“Rescuers recovered the body of a dead 65-year-old man from the rubble of a private house in the village of Radkove, Chuhuiv district,” a post from Kharkiv Regional Military Administration read.
Another local resident suffered an acute stress reaction.
Russian forces struck three settlements on 26 October, damaging residential buildings.
Barney Davis26 October 2024 18:00
Death toll rises to five after Dnipro strike
The head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, Serhiy Lysak, said the death toll after Russian strikes on the region has risen to five.
“Rescuers have recovered the body of a man from the rubble,” he wrote.
It came after a Russian missile hit a residential area in the central city of Dnipro, killing a 14-year-old and four others with at least 21 others injured including an eight-year-old and teenagers.
The wife and teenage daughter of a local policeman were pulled dead from the rubble, police reported.
The attack damaged more than a dozen apartment buildings, private houses and a medical facility.
Barney Davis26 October 2024 17:01
Policeman’s wife and daughter killed in Dnipro strike
A Russian missile hit a residential area in the central city of Dnipro, killing a 14-year-old and four others, said regional governor Serhii Lysak.
The wife and teenage daughter of a local policeman were pulled dead from the rubble, police reported.
The attack damaged more than a dozen apartment buildings, private houses and a medical facility.
A man and woman died after a Russian drone dropped explosives on a village in the southern Kherson region, local prosecutors said, while two people in their 60s were killed by shelling in the Kharkiv province in the north east.
Barney Davis26 October 2024 16:01