Ukraine Update

[C0RI0LANUS]

Captured North Koreans Confirm Intelligence Assessments


Captured North Korean soldier. (Source: Telegram account of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy)

Two captured North Korean soldiers are confirming Ukrainian military intelligence assessments that they are being used as infantry for cannon fodder attacks. One twenty-year-old EPW thought he was "going for training, not to fight a war against Ukraine."

The second EPW (26) was a sniper and was forced to write his answers because of an injured jaw.

One of the soldiers purportedly said he would prefer to stay in Ukraine rather than return to North Korea for fear of "severe punishment" from his government, saying he possibly faces execution or a lengthy imprisonment.

Previous reporting indicated the Russian soldiers didn’t treat the North Korean soldiers well before deploying them for “meat attacks.” The Russian soldiers talk disdainfully about the incoming North Korean soldiers, codenamed the “K Battalion,” at one point referring to them as “the f**king Chinese.”


Ukrainian Special Forces soldiers involved in the capture of two North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region. They report that the Russians did everything they could to prevent the capture of the North Korean soldiers. (Image: screen grab).

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that more than 300 North Korean soldiers had been killed in the Russian region of Kursk, with around 2,700 more wounded.

FSB Counterintelligence Officer Murdered in Moscow


The late Vladimir Feshchenko (L). Standing with him is proud father Igor Feshchenko, probably another FSB officer. (Credit: East2West)

A Russian counterintelligence officer in the FSB was shot in the head by another officer inside the country’s defense ministry in Moscow. Senior Lieutenant Vladimir Feshchenko (26) was reportedly killed by a more junior officer who was visiting him in his office.

The FSB officer “was covered in blood - there was a deep wound on his forehead.”

The suspect was detained soon afterwards but intrigue surrounds the incident.

Law enforcement expert Vladimir Osechkin, founder of Gulagu.net human rights group, said there is a war underway between the defense ministry and FSB officers assigned to snoop on them.

“Here is another case where a soldier simply cannot withstand the pressure and shoots an FSB officer in the forehead with his service weapon,” he said.

Official sources said the murder was the result of a “quarrel between two men” who had served together in the Russian Far East.


Kremlin Targets Ukraine's Key Lithium Reserves


(Graphic courtesy of Juan Carlos Herrera RFE/RL)

Russia has captured two of Ukraine's four lithium deposits since it launched its all-out invasion in 2022, potentially depriving Kyiv of a key economic resource.

On 11 Jan, Russia claimed to have seized control of Shevchenko, a rural settlement in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. The settlement sits on top of one of Ukraine's biggest lithium deposits.

Experts say Russia's seizure of Ukraine's lithium deposits could impact the rest of Europe and the Continent's efforts to shift to green energy. Described as "white gold," lithium is a critical material for batteries used in devices ranging from smartphones and laptops to electric vehicles. Ukraine has an estimated 500,000 tons of untapped lithium, one of the largest reserves in Europe.

Rod Schoonover, a national security expert and founder of the US-based Ecological Futures Group, said it is unlikely that seizing Ukraine's lithium deposits was a major war objective for Moscow. Russia itself has significant reserves, but Ukraine's mineral wealth is one reason the country is important to Russia.


The North Korean EPW debriefings are confirming previous Western intelligence agency assessments. If anything sensitive or revelatory is learned from these conscripts, this would be a surprise. Kiev has indicated a prisoner swap with Moscow, but this is highly unlikely as these Norks are considered valueless by the Kremlin and Pyongyang. The murder of the young FSB officer highlights the amount of pressure facing Russian military personnel from within their own quarters. But there may be another motive for the killing which has yet to be uncovered. Russia’s seizure of the mineral-rich areas in Ukraine spotlights the importance of rare earths for producing electronic equipment from Smartphones, spacecraft, computers, to drones.



Sources:

https://www.rferl.org/a/north-korea-russia-ukraine-captured-soldier-kursk/33276144.html

https://archive.is/noBef

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/25/europe/russian-soldiers-north-korean-recruits-intercepts-intl/index.html

https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-ukraine-war-russia-0f34fb82cfdd267652f8df8bc3c574ec

https://apnews.com/article/north-korea-ukraine-war-russia-0f34fb82cfdd267652f8df8bc3c574ec

https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-lithium-russia-europe/33274220.html