Putin’s War Russia-Ukraine September 2024-

North Korea/Russia/South Korea June 2023-

Far from the front lines, a spy war rages over Russian weapons
Faltering Russian drones point to modest successes in Western efforts to block Moscow’s access to technology. Yet, aided by covert operatives, Russia’s weapons production is soaring.
(WaPo) Early this year, Ukrainian air defense crews began noticing something odd about the one-way attack drones that Russia regularly launches against Ukrainian cities. The latest arrivals from Russia’s arms factories would swoop in, just as before. But then something would go wrong.
The newest Geran-2 drones were more likely to spin out of control whenever they went into a sharp turn. Some would crash harmlessly. Others would level off, becoming easy prey for air defense batteries. And yet the drones kept coming — sometimes as many as 100 in a single day.
… The defective drones marked a small win for Western countries in an ongoing shadow conflict — waged in part by spy agencies — to deny Moscow access to the high-tech components needed for modern weapons of war. And yet, such measurable victories are notable in part because they are rare, Western officials acknowledge.

21 November
Is the war in Ukraine escalating or headed toward an endgame?
Christopher S. Chivvis, senior fellow and director of the Carnegie Endowment’s American statecraft program
Allowing Ukraine to use US Atacms missiles for deep strikes may be worth the risk if it hastens negotiations
It seems like the war in Ukraine is on the brink of escalating to a new level. North Korean troops have joined Russia on the battlefield, Ukraine is striking deep into Russian territory with US-provided weapons, and the Kremlin is yet again making nuclear threats. These developments intensify the sense that this war could spiral out of control. Paradoxically, however, they may also help usher in its end.
In October, North Korea added 11,000 troops to the battlefield on Russia’s side. The Biden administration said this were an unacceptable escalation. Over the weekend, it approved Ukraine’s use of US-provided missiles for long-range strikes into Russia. Russia responded with a new and more threatening nuclear doctrine that says it might use its nuclear arsenal against a non-nuclear country – a not-so-thinly veiled threat to Ukraine.
Russia has made nuclear threats several times during the war, and I have argued that the west must take these threats seriously, no matter how inconvenient and immoral they may be. Still, these latest threats seem like pure posturing given the fact that the announcement was long expected, and Russia is now making steady headway on the battlefield with conventional means.
Putin says Russia struck Ukraine with experimental ballistic missile
Mark MacKinnon
(Globe & Mail) Russia said it had attacked the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Thursday with an experimental new ballistic missile, as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the war for Ukraine was becoming a global one.
The attack, which Mr. Putin said was carried out using a hypersonic medium-range missile named “Oreshnik,” marked the latest in a series of dangerous escalations in the past few days alone. Although the missile was not equipped with a nuclear warhead, Mr. Putin suggested it would have been capable of carrying one.
The strike on Dnipro happened four days after departing U.S. President Joe Biden gave in to months of pressure and allowed the Ukrainian military to use Western-made long-range missiles to strike Russian territory. Ukraine has since used U.S.-manufactured ATACMS and British-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles to attack targets hundreds of kilometres inside Russia.

17 November
Russia pounds Ukraine’s power grid in ‘massive’ air strike
Russia stages first big missile attack on Kyiv since August
Power system damaged further as winter sets in
Strike piles pressure on Ukraine at critical juncture
Attack prompts Poland to scramble air force
(Reuters) – Russia unleashed its largest air strike on Ukraine in almost three months on Sunday, launching 120 missiles and 90 drones that killed at least seven people and caused severe damage to the power system, officials said.
Ukrainians had been bracing for weeks for a renewed Russian attack on an already hobbled energy system, fearing long winter blackouts and mounting psychological pressure almost 1,000 days after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Biden approves Ukraine’s use of long-range U.S. weapons inside Russia, reversing policy
The Biden administration will allow Kyiv limited use of ATACMS to strike enemy positions in Russia, according to senior U.S. officials.
(Reuters) – Washington’s decision to let Kyiv strike deep into Russia with long-range U.S. missiles escalates the conflict in Ukraine and could lead to World War Three, senior Russian lawmakers said on Sunday.
Two U.S. officials and a source familiar with the decision revealed the significant reversal of Washington’s policy in the Ukraine-Russia conflict earlier on Sunday.
“The West has decided on such a level of escalation that it could end with the Ukrainian statehood in complete ruins by morning,” Andrei Klishas, a senior member of the Federation Council, Russia’s upper chamber of parliament, said on the Telegram messaging app.

10 November
October was worst month for Russia since start of Ukraine war, UK official says
“Russia is paying an extraordinary price for Putin’s invasion,” U.K. Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin tells BBC.
While Russian gains are putting pressure on the Ukrainian front, Radakin said, Moscow is suffering losses “for tiny increments of land.”
The Kremlin does not provide figures on the impact the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has had on the Russian military. A Wall Street Journal report in September said more than a million people on both sides had been injured or killed since the start of the conflict. United States officials told reporters last month that Russia had suffered more than 600,000 dead or wounded.
The estimated number of Russian casualties is more than 40 times what it suffered during its decade-long invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.
Radakin spoke after a massive drone strike rattled Moscow and its suburbs early Sunday, while a huge overnight wave of Russian drones targeted Ukraine. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said a total of 32 drones were shot down over the Russian capital’s outskirts.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, said on Sunday that Russia had “launched a record 145 Shaheds and other strike drones against Ukraine.”
Putin late Saturday signed into law a pact with North Korea obliging the two countries to provide immediate military aid using “all means” if either is attacked. The agreement marks the strongest link between Moscow and Pyongyang since the end of the Cold War.

30 October
North Korean troops in Russian uniforms heading to Kursk, says US
Lloyd Austin says deployment near Ukraine border is a dangerous and destabilising development
North Korean troops wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment are moving to the Russian region of Kursk, near Ukraine, according to the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, who described the deployment as a dangerous and destabilising development.
Austin was speaking at a press conference at the Pentagon with the South Korean defence minister, Kim Yong-hyun, as concerns grow about Pyongyang’s deployment of as many as 11,000 troops to Russia. The US and South Korea said some of the North Korean troops are heading to Kursk, on the border with Ukraine, where the Kremlin’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion.
Austin said “the likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the North Korean troops in combat. He added that officials were discussing what to do about the deployment, which he said had the potential to broaden or lengthen the conflict in Ukraine.

28 October
What are the global consequences of North Korean soldiers now appearing on the frontlines in Ukraine?
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, shares his perspective on European politics from Stockholm, Sweden.
(GZERO media) Well, I think first, it’s a reflection of the fact that Russia President Putin, does have difficulties getting the manpower to man the front lines. He has difficulty recruiting in Russia itself. He’s dependent upon soldiers, and evidently, he’s now dependent upon North Korea to supply the front lines. I mean, that’s a sign of at least long-term weakness in terms of Russia. Then the question is, of course, what has he given in return to the sort of dictator in Pyongyang? In all probability, high-tech and different sorts of military equipment. And that, of course, has serious implications or potential serious implications for stability on the Korean Peninsula. So there are consequences on the front
lines in Russia and on the Korean Peninsula.

24 October
Putin ends BRICS summit that sought to expand Russia’s global clout but was shadowed by Ukraine
(AP) … The conflict came up repeatedly at the meeting, which saw the first visit to Russia from United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in more than two years and drew an angry reaction from Kyiv. Guterres called for “a just peace” in Ukraine, in line with the U.N. Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions. He also urged an immediate end to the fighting in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan.
At a news conference Thursday night, Putin was asked about former U.S. President Donald Trump’s promise to end the fighting in Ukraine.

2 October
Russia captures Vuhledar after two years of Ukrainian resistance
Russia takes control of Vuhledar – bloggers and media
Russia had encircled the town
Russia has been advancing at fastest rate in two years
No comment from Russia or Ukraine on Vuhledar
(Reuters) – Russian troops on [2 October] took charge of the eastern Ukrainian town of Vuhledar, a bastion that had resisted intense attacks since Russia launched its full-scale assault in 2022.
The advance of Moscow’s forces, which control just under a fifth of Ukraine, has underlined Russia’s vast superiority in men and materiel as Ukraine pleads for more weapons from the Western allies that have been supporting it.
Ukraine says its forces have withdrawn from defensive bastion of Vuhledar
Eastern city had resisted repeated attacks but Russian troops are close to ‘encircling’ it in Donetsk advance

1 October
‘Everything is dead’: Ukraine rushes to stem ecocide after river poisoning
(The Guardian) Russia is suspected of deliberately leaking chemical waste into a river, with deadly consequences for wildlife

30 September
Russia to raise defence budget by 25% to highest level on record
Draft documents say defence and security will make up 40% of government spending as Putin continues war against Ukraine