‘The First North Korean Units to Arrive Tomorrow in Kursk’ – Ukraine at War Update for Oct. 23

Kyrylo Budanov, chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense, said in an interview on Tuesday that North Korean soldiers are expected to arrive in Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday, as reinforcements for the Kremlin’s push-back against the months-long incursion there by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

“We expect the first units to arrive tomorrow on the Kursk front,” Budanov said.

The military intelligence head added that more information will become available very shortly on the number of soldiers to be transported to Kursk and how they will be equipped.

On Oct. 17, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an evening address that Russia intended to involve about 10,000 soldiers from North Korea, insisting that Pyongyang had, thus, joined the war.

The General Secretary of NATO, Mark Rutte, said on Tuesday that he expects to hear a detailed report from South Korea regarding the alleged dispatch of North Korean troops. Until then, he said, NATO cannot confirm that those troops are engaged in Ukraine.

“I discussed this yesterday in a telephone call with the president of South Korea,” Rutte said on Tuesday. “Of course, we discussed the ongoing cooperation between South Korea and NATO, and we just ended on Thursday a very successful meeting of the NATO defense ministers together with their colleagues from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan. This phone call yesterday was very much focusing on the deeper case of North Korea.”

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According to one of Pyongyang’s UN representatives on Monday, North Korea has not sent troops to Russia to help Moscow fight Ukraine, dismissing Seoul’s claims as “groundless rumor.”

South Korea’s spy agency said Friday that Pyongyang sent a “large-scale” troop deployment to help its ally, claiming that 1,500 special forces were already training in Russia’s Far East and ready to head soon for the frontlines of the Ukraine war.

“The presence of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine should be a wake-up call to the [US] administration,” wrote retired United States Army lieutenant colonel and famous Trump whistleblower Alexander Vindman in Kyiv Post. “While Washington struggles to consistently provide already purchased and manufactured war material to Ukraine, the United States’ enemies have mobilized their industrial capacity to support Russia’s invasion.”

Biden administration confirms $20B commitment to G7 Ukraine loan, to unveil more sanctions on Moscow

On Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen confirmed reports that Washington plans to contribute $20 billion to a G7 loan package for Ukraine. She added that new sanctions on Moscow could be announced soon, targeting Russian weapons procurement, AFP reported.

“We’re very close to finalizing America’s portion of this $50 billion loan package,” Yellen told a press conference in the lead-up to meetings in the US capital of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Yellen said financial leaders from the G7 are still hammering out the details of the loan, coming after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on a visit to Kyiv revealed a $400 million US aid package on Monday, as well as a promised $800 million in loans for Ukraine to develop more military-use drones domestically.

“What I want to emphasize is that the source of financing for these loans, this is not the American taxpayer,” the Treasury Secretary added in her address, coming exactly two weeks before presidential elections in America.

Instead, the G7 loan will be backed by profits from the interest on Russian assets which have been frozen both in the US and in Europe.

Yellen noted that although European Union sanctions need to be renewed every six months with a unanimous decision, she feels “good that this is a secure loan that will be serviced by Russian assets.”

She added that fresh US sanctions on Russia could be announced as early as next week.

“We will unveil strong new sanctions targeting those facilitating the Kremlin’s war machine, including intermediaries in third countries that are supplying Russia with critical inputs for its military,” Yellen said.

Moscow’s allies from around the world descend on Tatarstan to discuss bilateral ties

Three dozen world leaders, including those from China, India, South Africa, and Iran, arrived in Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation, for the 16th annual BRICS summit, during which, analysts from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said, Russia will likely “seek to establish mechanisms to enhance its war effort in Ukraine.”

The most controversial of the appearances with Russian leader Vladimir Putin were those of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Taliban’s Minister of Trade and Industry Nooruddin Azizi, and Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also joined the summit.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić said he wouldn’t attend, as his country, with deep cultural and economic ties to Moscow, walks a political tightrope between guaranteeing deliveries of Russian energy this winter and its bid to join the European Union, as well as improve its relations with Washington. Vučić sent his deputy to Kazan instead.

Guterres’ decision to attend, despite his condemnation of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the UN’s findings of war crimes perpetrated by Putin’s forces, was met with sharp criticism from Kyiv earlier in the week.

Putin met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit during which, the ISW reported, “both leaders emphasized the importance of multifaceted Russia-China relations while Xi highlighted BRICS as a format for global strategic cooperation.” Putin also met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, during which he again made overures toward a “multipolar world order.”

Modi repeated the need to find “the earliest possible” peaceful solution to the war, and reaffirmed India’s role as a potential mediator.