Ukraine Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin

EA-Times Radio Special: Ukraine, NATO, and A “German Parallel” to End Russia’s Invasion?

Tuesday’s Coverage: Is UN Head Meeting “War Criminal” Putin?

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1511 GMT:

Five civilians have been killed and 14 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Three fatalities were in the Donetsk region in the east, and one each in Dnipropetrovsk in south-central Ukraine and one in Kharkiv in the northeast.

Air defenses shot down 57 of 81 Iran-type drones launched by Russia overnight. Fifteen others were lost to electronic counter-measures.

UPDATE 1401 GMT:

Ukraine has received a tranche of almost $1.1 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said, “The funds will be used to cover important non-military budget spending.”

Ukraine received $42.5 billion in external financing last year, maintaining governance and services amid the Russian invasion.

UPDATE 1329 GMT:

Supporting South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has said, “There is evidence that there are DPRK [North Korean] troops in Russia.”

Speaking in Rome, Austin continued, “What exactly they are doing? Left to be seen. These are things that we need to sort out.”

The Defense Secretary did not give the number of North Korean troops.

South Korean intelligence says it has confirmation of 1,500 North Koreans supporting Russia, while officials have given the number of 12,000 to South Korean media.

Ukrainian intelligence has put the number at 11,000, with the first North Koreans arriving the Kursk region in western Russia. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke last night of around 6,000 North Koreans.

Speaking with The Economist, Budanov said the deployment includes 500 officers and three generals. A contingent of 2,600 troops are going to Kursk, with other troops undergoing training in Khabarovsk Krai in Russia’s far east.

The intelligence chief said Pyongyang has supplied Russia with 2.8 million artillery shells and an unspecified number of ballistic missiles, serviced by North Korean crews.

In return, Russia is helping North Korea evade sanctions and develop its nuclear capabilities.

UPDATE 1322 GMT:

Officials have told the French newspaper La Tribune that Paris will deliver its first three Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine in the first quarter of 2025.

The sources said the timing accounts for training of pilots and mechanics and preparation of the aircraft.

The planes will be equipped with ground strike capabilities, including SCALP/Storm Shadow long-range missiles and AASM Hammer guided bombs.

UPDATE 1249 GMT:

Ukraine’s National Guard says three companies of Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in assaults on Selydove in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine over the past day.

A Russian company normally has from 30 to 150 troops. National Guard spokesperson Ruslan Muzychuk said the Russians suffered 307 casualties.

Muzychuk said defenders repelled 13 Russian assaults.

Selydove, with a pre-invasion population of almost 21,000 people, is 18 km south of Pokrovsk, a key target of Russia’s year-long offensive.

UPDATE 0554 GMT:

An agreement between Ukraine and Russia not to strike each other’s energy infrastructure could be the first step toward ending Moscow’s 32-month invasion, says Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Zelenskiy told the Financial Times:

A decision on energy security may be made. In other words, we do not attack their energy infrastructure, they do not attack ours. Could this lead to the end of the hot phase of the war? I think so.

However, the President noted that Russia’s openness to negotiations at the moment “depends, first of all, on the US elections”, where Vladimir Putin’s supporter Donald Trump is hoping to return to the White House.

In August, sources told The Washington Post reported that Moscow and Kyiv were planning secret talks, brokered by Qatar, on ending mutual attacks on energy facilities. The Kremlin postponed the meeting because of Ukraine’s cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.

The Security of Russia’s State Security Council, Sergey Shoygu, said:

Turkey proposed to us…not to strike energy facilities, not to strike nuclear energy facilities, and not to strike the commercial civilian fleet in the Black Sea. Our President made the decision and said, “Yes, let’s do it, let’s make such a decision.”

UPDATE 0539 GMT:

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has indicated that the US will contribute $20 billion to a G7 loan package of $50 billion for Ukraine.

The loan is backed by the interest on $300 billion of frozen Russian assets in the West. It will be considered by G7 leaders later this week.

“What I want to emphasize is that the source of financing for these loans…is not the American taxpayer,” Yellen said.

She also said, “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.”

UPDATE 0526 GMT:

The head of Ukraine military intelligence says Kyiv expects North Korean soldiers to arrive on Wednesday in the Kursk region in western Russia.

“We are waiting for the first units tomorrow in the Kursk direction,” said Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov on Tuesday. “It is unclear at the moment how many or how they will be equipped. We will see after a couple of days.”

Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk from early August captured around 100 settlements and 1,300 square km (500 square miles). Russia has strained in recent weeks to regain some of the territory.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday of the reported dispatch of thousands of North Korean troops, “We expect a firm, concrete response from the world. Hopefully, not just in words.”

A senior official in the office of South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Seoul may consider direct supply weapons to Ukraine in response to the North Korean support of Russia.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin has resigned after dozens of his officials allegedly registered themselves as disabled to avoid military service.

After a National Security Council meeting over draft dodging, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, “The Prosecutor General must take political responsibility for the situation in the prosecution bodies of Ukraine.”

Kostin accepted the dismissal, saying the situation was “clearly amoral: “It is right to announce my resignation from the position of prosecutor general”.

The State security service SBU said 64 members of medical commissions had been named as suspects in criminal investigations in 2024. Nine more had been tried and found guilty.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal dismissed the management of the central commission overseeing fitness for service, as well as senior officials in the Health Ministry.

Zelensky ordered the Cabinet to draft a law dissolving existing medical commissions and reforming the disability assessment system. He said in his nightly address to the nation:

It is not only prosecutors, by the way. There are hundreds of cases of obviously unjustified disability [statuses] among customs and tax officials, in the pension fund system, and in local administrations….

All this must be dealt with carefully and promptly.

Kostin had served as Prosecutor General since July 2022. He replaced Iryna Venediktova, who was fired by Zelenskiy over suspected treason and collaboration by prosecutors and law enforcement officials.