A Donbas separatist leader sent a message asking for leader Kim Jong Un’s cooperation amid signals North Korea would consider sending workers for restoration projects in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied areas.
Only a few countries have recognized the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, the regions that make up the eastern Donbas region, and North Korea is one of them.
The Asian country has indicated it is reviewing plans to send workers for restoration projects in those regions, running against U.N. Security Council sanctions. The U.S. has criticized such possibilities.
In his messages, Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin expressed hope that his Moscow-backed republic and North Korea could achieve “equally beneficial bilateral cooperation agreeing with the interests” of their people, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday.
North Korea has continually blamed the U.S. for the crisis in Ukraine, saying the West’s “hegemonic policy” justified Russian force to protect itself.
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Latest developments:
► Ukraine’s General Staff reported 44,100 Russian troops have died in Ukraine since Russia first launched attacks on Feb. 24. Russia has also lost 1,886 tanks, 4,162 armored fighting vehicles, 792 drones and 233 airplanes, the staff said.
► Russian occupiers have kidnapped mayor Svitlana Korotun of Verkhny Rohachyk, a village community in the Ukrainian province of Kherson Oblast, north of Crimea. Yury Sobolevsky, first deputy speaker of the regional legislature, said Wednesday that Korotun was taken from her home to an unknown location because she refused to cooperate with the Russians.
► Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to avoid the Russian army’s military bases and ammunition storage facilities as daily reports of explosions continue in Russia-occupied areas.
Freezing of war in Ukraine not possible, defense minister says
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said he does not believe the option of “freezing” the conflict in Ukraine, like what occurred when Russia occupied Donbas, is possible. “The option of reducing activity is possible, depending on the season. Modern war is a war of resources. Resources, of course, are being depleted on both sides, and, accordingly, each side needs time to recover,” Reznikov told Voice of America.
Reznikov said he doesn’t anticipate a freezing of what people call a conflict, “because it is not a conflict. This is a war. A war for survival. And we will defend ourselves, to survive.”
Russian military recruiting Central Asian mercenaries to fight in Ukraine
The Russian military’s leadership aims to recruit mercenaries from Central Asian countries to counter the lack of Russian citizens willing to fight, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense said.
“In order to at least partially preserve the possibility of forming new reserves, the Kremlin leadership is increasingly trying to attract foreign citizens to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,” a translated Telegram message read.
Meanwhile, four battalions forming in Chechnya are preparing to fight in Ukraine. The groups are primarily made up of local young men abducted by Chechen security forces who are threatened with imprisonment if they do not participate in the war against Ukraine, news outlet Channel 5 reported.
Russia blames sabotage for ‘state of emergency’ in Crimea
Massive explosions and fires ripped through Crimea on Tuesday, forcing 3,000 residents to flee their homes as the war in Ukraine appears to be spreading to the peninsula occupied by Russia since 2014. Officials said two people were injured.
The Russian Defense Ministry blamed “sabotage” for explosions at a military warehouse near Dzhankoya. Power lines, a power plant, a railway track and several residential buildings were damaged, the ministry said in a statement obtained by the Russian news outlet Kommersant. The explosions were described as a diversion.
Another fire was reported at a power substation, but officials did not indicate whether it was related to the ammunition blasts. “We are in a state of emergency,” said Sergey Aksenov, the Russian leader of the Crimean administration.
Contributing: The Associated Press
