Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un pose for the cameras, Pyongyang, June 19, 2024
Monday’s Coverage: Emergency Blackouts as Russia Threatens Energy Infrastructure
Map: Institute for the Study of War
UPDATE 0625 GMT:
The toll has risen to four killed — three children and a woman — from Monday’s Russian missile strike on a high-rise residential building in Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine.
The bodies of the children, one of whom was less than a year old, were recovered from the rubble of the five-story building.
Another 14 civilians, including a 10-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy, were injured.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted:
Every day, every night, Russia unleashes the same terror. More and more civilian objects are being targeted. Russia only wants to continue the war, and each of its strikes negates any claims of diplomacy.
Kryvyi Rih. An ordinary five-story apartment building hit by Russian terrorists with a missile. The first to fifth floors of one of the stairwells were destroyed. So far, seven people have been reported injured, including two children. Emergency rescue operations are underway,… pic.twitter.com/usuWFCrehZ
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 11, 2024
ORIGINAL ENTRY: North Korea has formally confirmed a mutual defense treaty with Russia.
North Korean State news agency KCNA reported the decree by leader Kim Jong-un, which commits the countries to assist each other in the event of an armed attack.
“The treaty will take effect from the day when both sides exchanged the ratification instruments,” KCNA said.
Kim and Vladimir Putin signed the treaty during the Russian leader’s visit to Pyongyang in June. Russian lawmakers unanimously approved it last week, and Putin signed it into law.
Ukrainian, South Korean, and US intelligence estimate that North Korea has sent around 11,000 troops to bolster Russia’s 32 1/2-month invasion. The soldiers are reportedly deployed in the Kursk region in western Russia, part of which has been controlled by Ukraine after a cross-border incursion on August 6.
Last Tuesday, Ukraine Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the “first small engagement” with the North Koreans.
See also Ukraine War, Day 987: Kyiv’s 1st Clashes With North Korean Troops in Russia
Foreign Ministers of the G7 nations — the US, Japan, Italy, the UK, Germany, France, and Canada — and those of South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, and the High Representative of the European Union expressed “grave concerns” over North Korea’s military deployment in Russia. They said they are working on a “coordinated response”.
