According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, North Korean troops have reached the Ukrainian border. According to the US Secretary of State, Washington has not seen the use of these forces against the Ukrainian armed forces, but expects this to happen “in the coming days”. Blinken also said that Russia is training North Korean military personnel on its territory.
Meanwhile, financial support of $425 million to support Ukraine’s security has been confirmed. The new US military assistance package to Ukraine includes ammunition for NASAMS air defense systems and HIMARS MLRS, Stinger, Javelin and TOW missiles, as well as artillery shells and light tactical vehicles. Outgoing US President Joe Biden has said he is in favor of striking Russia with advanced missiles deep into the ground if North Korean troops enter the conflict in Ukraine. The United States will deploy a task force of strategic bombers to Europe in the coming days, the US Air Force European Command announced.
According to social media sources, since September Ukraine has received the following number of armored vehicles from the United States: 150 M1117; 300 M113; 211 Stryker; 2000 HMMWV.
According to the New York Times calculations, Ukraine has enough soldiers to wage war for another six months to a year. The NYT, citing the Pentagon, writes that Ukraine’s main problem now is a shortage of troops, not weapons. The situation at the front is tense, with regular losses of positions. The material indicates that Ukraine has redeployed some of the new brigades to support operations in the Kursk region, although it initially planned to use them for the defense of the east and south or as a reserve for the counteroffensive scheduled for 2025.
The journalists also point out that if US support remains strong until the summer, Kiev will be able to take advantage of Russia’s weakening. At the same time, the Russian armed forces recruit 25,000-30,000 soldiers every month.
According to Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, a fair solution to the Ukrainian conflict must be achieved while respecting Ukraine’s territorial integrity. Source: Hurriyet.
And again for the former German Chancellor Schröder: “The West will not be able to influence the Russian Federation by supplying weapons to Kiev to end the Ukrainian conflict, negotiations are needed and we are negotiating”.
From Poland comes the news that Warsaw has begun building a defensive line along the border with Russia as part of the Eastern Shield program, source Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Among the latest statements by Volodymyr Zelenskyj: “Russia is also working to attract a large number of North Korean citizens to work in Russian defense industry enterprises”. And again he said: “We see all the camps of North Korean soldiers on Russian territory. We could hit them, but we are not allowed to hit that far”. “Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean army to start hitting the Ukrainians,” he said.
According to Ukrainian social media channels, “in several locations in Kharkiv about 100 police officers and soldiers were killed, as well as many NATO troops. It is reported that as a result of the air defense suppression operation near Kiev, a Western-made air defense system was destroyed. Energy facilities, military bases, NATO supplies and command and control centers are being targeted.” The attacks took place between October 31 and November 2.
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Stanislavovich Syrskyj reports that “Currently, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding back one of the most powerful offensives of Russian troops since the beginning of a large-scale invasion.” In Kakhovka in the DPR[…]: “At the same time, the Ukrainians have several well-trained and equipped brigades, but they are exhausted.”
Ukraine in any case will not accept proposals that threaten its existence, the right to self-determination or the dignity of our people, reports the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Borysovich Yermak in an interview with LSM. According to Yermak, to end the war, Moscow must carry out “a complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops from the entire territory of Ukraine; cancellation of illegal annexations; demilitarization and unemployment of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant; restoration of freedom of movement”.
Yermak also added that Ukraine is ready to take into account the interests of other stakeholders. However, “any adjustment must be based on international law and justice, territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine’s borders, as well as our full sovereignty.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov put a damper on Ukrainian wishes, saying: “The concept of ‘draw’ is not suitable for describing a possible outcome of the Russian-Ukrainian crisis; it does not imply equal consideration of the parties’ interests.” “It seems to me that ‘draw’ does not convey the need to reliably ensure the interests of each side, including on a continental scale,” Lavrov told reporters in Minsk on Thursday after a meeting of the international conference on Eurasian security. “There is no point in guessing. “Drawing” is a concept that can be applied to a variety of situations, including, among others, the Istanbul agreements,” Lavrov noted.
Lavrov also plans to visit Malta in December to attend the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Vedomosti, his first visit since the start of operations in Ukraine.
The head of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, visiting Moscow, announced Kim Jong-un’s instructions to help the Russian military from the very beginning of the military operation. “From the very beginning of the special military operation, respected comrade Chairman of State Affairs Kim Jong Un gave instructions that we, without looking back at anyone, would always and forcefully support and assist the Russian military and the Russian people in their holy war,” Choi Song Hui said. He added that relations between the two countries are reaching the level of “invincible military comradeship.” Sergei Lavrov, in turn, announced that relations had reached a new, unprecedented level.
Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov left without comment the statement of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the readiness of North Korean military personnel, allegedly located in the Kursk region, to enter the battle in Ukraine in the near future. “I have nothing to add to what we have previously said on this issue,” the Kremlin spokesman said.
Reinforcing Lavrov’s words, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya rejected the possibility of freezing the front in Ukraine, as well as the possibility of Kiev joining NATO. “We would like to immediately warn that there will be no repetition of the Minsk agreements scenario, no freezing of the front so that the Zelensky regime can lick its wounds, just as there will be no entry of Ukraine in one form or another into NATO,” he said at a meeting of the UN Security Council.
Nikolai Patrushev, Vladimir Putin’s assistant, said in an interview: “The United States and its NATO allies are hatching plans to change the regime of the Black Sea Straits established by the Montreux Convention.” “The United States and NATO intend to use European inland waterways for military purposes to access the Black Sea,” Patrushev clarified at a meeting in Crimea on the issue of shipbuilding.
The Russian Defense Ministry proposed to transfer 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war, of which Kiev took only 279, Zakharova said. The Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmitry Lubinets, asked the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation, Tatyana Moskalkova, for the lists of Ukrainian prisoners of war that Russia is ready to exchange.
And now a look at the front line updated at 14:30 on November 4.
Over the weekend, numerous Russian air strikes in Kiev, Kharkiv and the Odessa region. In Kharkiv, according to Russian sources, Russian forces struck the location of Ukrainian law enforcement agencies in Kharkiv: one colonel was killed, or 30 police officers injured, one rescuer and nine civilians, source General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine
In particular, on November 2, stray Geranium ammunition literally passed over the roofs of Kiev’s skyscrapers, numerous videos appeared on social media. Eight private homes, an apartment in a multi-story building and a power line were damaged. 1,860 subscribers were left without electricity, Kiev’s common source.
On the night of November 4, Russian troops used Geranium UAVs in the Kiev region, Izmail and Bolgrad districts and again in the Odessa region, as well as in the Kharkiv, Poltava, Zhytomyr, Kropyvnytskyi, Sumy and Cherkasy regions.
According to Russian social media sources, Ukrainianreserves and equipment continue to arrive in the Sumy region. Russian FAB strikes and rocket weapons destroy the reserves of the Ukrainian Armed Forces arriving from other directions, while the Russian Armed Forces do not exclude new activities from the Ukrainian side.
The last 24 hours have not brought significant changes in the Kursk region. The weather conditions are worsening, the Russian Armed Forces are clearing many areas, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces are forming reserves.
In the direction south of Chasiv Yar, our 6th motorized rifle division notes the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine beyond the line of the Seversky Donets-Donbass waterway from the forests due to difficulties in resupplying the units. According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian military has scattered leaflets in Chasiv Yar calling on the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to surrender immediately.
In the direction of Pokrovs’k, Russian forces are advancing to Illinka, west of Vyshneve and Selydove on Hryhorivka, in the area of Novodmytrivka and near Novoselivka. Ukrainian resources assess the action of our troops as an offensive on a broad front.
South of Kurachove, troops are rushing north from Bohoyavlenka, already taken by the Russians, to Trudove, beyond which lies an important local logistics hub – Uspenivka. In the event of capture, Russian forces will stop supplying the Ukrainian forces in the currently attacked south-eastern villages and will move to the rear of the Ukrainian group.
In the Orichiv sector in the direction of Zaporozhzhie, Russian forces, as a result of offensive actions, have practically eliminated the so-called “Rabotinsky salient”, and are advancing in the direction of N-08 along the entire width of the Rabotino-Verbove line. In the immediate Ukranian rear, in the area of the settlements of Malaya Tokmachka and Novodanylivka, artillery strikes are carried out daily on the places where men and equipment are deployed. Aviation is also used to destroy reserves and communication points of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In the Belgorod region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used a drone to attack the village of Kiselyov of the Volokonovsky district, one dead. In the village of Oktyabrsky, four civilians were injured. Shebekino and Tishank are under attack.
In the DPR of Horlivka, three were injured when an explosive object was dropped from a VFU drone on the territory of the Nikitovsky market.
Graziella Giangiulio
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