Ukraine demands response to North Korea’s aid to Russia

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Lerato Khumalo

The situation at a glance

Ukraine demands response to North Korea’s aid to Russia

Updated 10/21/2024 – 7:57 a.mReading time: 3 minutes

Enlarge the imageUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warns against North Korean military aid to Russia in the war of aggression against his country. (archive image) (Source: Omar Havana/AP/dpa/dpa-bilder)

With bundles of dollars in bed: A corruption scandal rocks Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia is reportedly receiving war aid from North Korea. President Zelenskyj does not want to tolerate either.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj sees military cooperation between Russia and North Korea as a new escalation in Moscow’s war of aggression against his country. “We have to react and take countermeasures. We must not allow evil to continue to grow,” Zelenskyj said in his evening video message. “If the world stays silent now and we are confronted with North Korean soldiers on the front lines as regularly as we defend ourselves against drones, it will benefit no one in the world and will only prolong this war.”

Moscow has been rejecting reports from Ukraine and South Korea, which also rely on satellite images, for days about the dispatch of up to 12,000 soldiers from North Korea to neighboring Russia. There is also no confirmation from NATO or the USA that North Korea has sent soldiers to Russia as reinforcements.

However, Russia and North Korea have not only agreed on close military cooperation, but also on assistance in the event of external attacks. Therefore, North Korean soldiers could be used to defend the Russian Kursk region, which was attacked by Ukrainian troops. The Ukrainian army has been occupying dozens of locations in the Kursk area since the beginning of August in order to counter the Russian invaders’ own conquests in their war of aggression.

Zelensky spoke of an “evil alliance” and “dangerous cooperation” between Russia and North Korea. “Unfortunately, once North Korea learns the tactics of modern warfare, instability and threats could increase significantly,” he stressed. Ukraine’s allies must have an answer ready because another state is now participating in the war and this is becoming a new threat. So far, Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has primarily relied on the neighboring Ukrainian state of Belarus as a staging area for his war.

The war must be ended justly and as quickly as possible, said Zelensky. He once again accused Iran of being in a “criminal alliance” with Russia to supply drones for the war against his country. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has counted more than 6,000 drone attacks. The Ukrainians have been defending themselves against the Russian war of aggression with Western military aid for almost 1,000 days.

Fraud and corruption scandal rocks Ukraine

After a major case of fraud and corruption in the judiciary and healthcare system, even by Ukrainian standards, Zelensky also announced a special meeting of the National Security and Defense Council in his video message. In the western Ukrainian region of Khmelnytskyi, authorities had initiated investigations against almost 50 public prosecutors who are said to have bought disabled status in order to avoid being deployed in war.

If something like that happens, the country doesn’t need any external enemies, said Zelensky. “This is really an enemy within.” He called on the secret service and the public prosecutor’s office to take decisive action. The scandal shocked the country after an investigative journalist made the machinations public.

According to the media report, the prosecutors also received disability pensions. Some people got this classification before the war started because it made it harder for them to be dismissed and given priority for promotions.

The scandal was triggered by the arrest of the head of the medical-social expert commission for assessing levels of disability in the Khmelnytskyi region at the beginning of October. The woman who sat on the regional council for Zelensky’s party is said to have classified thousands of Ukrainians as disabled and unfit for military service in exchange for bribes.

The equivalent of over five million euros in cash was confiscated during house searches. Millions more were discovered in accounts abroad, among others. The doctor’s son also headed the pension fund in the region and was therefore responsible for paying special pensions. One photo showed him lying on a bed with bundles of dollars. The investigations launched should not be limited to the prosecutor’s office of the Khmelnytskyi region, but should also extend to other prosecutor’s offices.

According to the non-governmental organization Transparency International, Ukraine, which is aspiring to join the EU and NATO, is one of the most corrupt states in Europe after Russia. In the course of the Russian war of aggression, which has been going on for more than two and a half years, scandals have repeatedly been uncovered in which, not least, military officials have enriched themselves.

After the Russian invasion of February 2022, a mobilization was ordered in Ukraine. Men of military age between 18 and 60 are only allowed to leave the country in exceptional cases. On the other hand, people who have been decommissioned because of a disability can leave the country just as freely as their sole carers.