MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Friday declined to comment on reports that North Korean soldiers fighting with Russia’s army had been pulled back from the front line.
Western, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence agencies say Pyongyang had deployed more than 10,000 troops to support Russia’s forces fighting in its western Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a cross-border offensive.
Citing US and Ukrainian officials, the New York Times on Thursday reported that the North Korean troops had been pulled back from the front and had not been seen fighting there for around two weeks, after suffering heavy casualties in combat.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Wednesday said that “some North Korean units have been pulled back from the front line in the Kursk region, according to reports from Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.”
Asked on Friday about the reports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment.
“There are a lot of different arguments out there, both right and wrong,” he told reporters.
“It’s not worth commenting on every time,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has published footage of what he said were captured North Korean soldiers taken by Ukraine’s forces in the Kursk region.
Kyiv and the West decried the deployment of North Korean fighters as a major escalation in the three-year conflict.
Kremlin declines to comment on reports N.Koreans withdrawn from front
https://arab.news/6gnt7
Kremlin declines to comment on reports N.Koreans withdrawn from front
- Citing US and Ukrainian officials, the New York Times on Thursday reported that the North Korean troops had been pulled back from the front and had not been seen fighting there
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “There are a lot of different arguments out there, both right and wrong“
Ukrainian soldiers put hopes in Europe after Trump clash
- The fighting is raging in Ukraine, particularly around the town of Pokrovsk — an important logistics hub
- The Ukrainian army is outgunned and outmanned and struggling to hold back Russia’s steady advance
KYIV: A few kilometers from the front line in eastern Ukraine, Nadija, an army lieutenant, told AFP she felt “empty” after watching the clash between President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump.
Nadija said she wondered what Ukraine had done to deserve getting harangued by Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” and not “thankful” enough for US support.
“We did everything we had to,” said the round-cheeked 21-year-old soldier in the Donetsk region.
“I could have lived a calm life but instead of that I am fighting,” she said.
The fighting is raging in Ukraine, particularly around the town of Pokrovsk — an important logistics hub.
The Ukrainian army is outgunned and outmanned and struggling to hold back Russia’s steady advance.
Nadija said the unprecedented argument in the White House would likely boost support for Zelensky and the army in Ukraine.
“I think that more people will pay attention to the need to serve in the armed forces,” she said, explaining that the army needed “young recruits.”
With the risk of a cut in US military assistance, Nadija said she hoped for backing from Europe, adding that countries bordering Russia would “wake up.”
“If the support weakens, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will have achieved his aims and Europe will be next” to be attacked, she said.
Near the snow-covered front line, Oleksandr, a 41-year-old sergeant, held a cup of coffee to stay warm.
An imposing figure with blue eyes, he said he was “proud” of his president and “not surprised” by Trump’s words, adding that the US leader “likes dictators.”
“I think there won’t be any more aid to put pressure on us to capitulate to Russia as soon as possible.”
Oleksandr said he also hoped for support for Europe, pointing out that Russia had “reliable” partners such as North Korea which sent soldiers to fight Ukraine.
“They (European countries) will help us but not all of them,” he said.
Two other soldiers, who go by the nicknames Smile and Rybachok, were also having coffee between missions.
Smile said he felt “betrayed” and “abandoned.”
“They way Trump behaved is unacceptable,” he said, adding that the situation at the front was “serious.”
He said he too wanted to believe Europe would come to the rescue — “otherwise, what else can we do?.”
“Of course Europe will help us,” said Rybachok, 38, who is staying optimistic despite having lost an eye in combat and having several scars on his face.
Ivan, who was away from the front for a break to try and forget the horror, said Zelensky had replied “as he should have” to Trump.
Asked if he was afraid of what would come next, he replied: “I no longer know what fear is.”
Russian missile injures two, hits port infrastructure, vessel in Ukraine’s Odesa, governor says
- Facilities at the three Black Sea ports around the city have been frequent Russian targets
KYIV: A Russian missile struck port facilities in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa on Saturday, injuring two port workers and damaging infrastructure and a vessel, regional governor Oleh Kiper said.
Kiper, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said the strike damaged a Panamanian-flagged vessel belonging to a European company. He said emergency crews were at the site and medics were treating the two injured men.
Facilities at the three Black Sea ports around the city have been frequent Russian targets in the three-year-old war pitting Moscow against Kyiv.
Ukraine’s Zelensky says Trump backing still ‘crucial’ after row
- “It’s crucial for us to have President Trump’s support. He wants to end the war, but no one wants peace more than we do,” Zelensky said
- “But we need to be honest and direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals”
LONDON: Volodymyr Zelensky insisted on Saturday that Donald Trump’s support was still “crucial” for Ukraine despite an undiplomatic row with the US president that left Kyiv’s European allies scrambling for new responses to Russia’s invasion.
The Ukrainian president touched down in London for a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Saturday afternoon, ahead of emergency talks on Sunday with Kyiv’s European backers, blindsided by the stunning White House blow-up in which Trump berated Zelensky for not being “ready” for peace with Russia.
Friday’s argument sent alarm bells ringing across Europe, with Germany branding it the start of a “new age of infamy,” while Russia reacted gleefully to Trump’s apparent takedown of Zelensky, Ukraine’s wartime leader throughout Moscow’s more than three-year-long invasion.
Following the clash, Zelensky departed the White House without signing an expected deal on Kyiv’s rare minerals, but the Ukrainian leader insisted he was still “ready” to sign the agreement as “the first step toward security guarantees.”
“It’s crucial for us to have President Trump’s support. He wants to end the war, but no one wants peace more than we do,” Zelensky said in a post on social media platform X.
European leaders rallied to Zelensky’s defense, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying Ukraine was “not alone” and Starmer vowing “unwavering support” for Kyiv.
Others pressed for an olive branch. In an interview with the BBC, NATO chief Mark Rutte said that he talked to Zelensky and told him he had to “find a way” to restore his relationship with Trump after the row.
Trump stunned many in Europe when he reached out to Russian President Vladimir Putin to seek a deal on Ukraine, which Moscow invaded three years ago.
The Republican’s sudden shift on Ukraine, sidelining Kyiv and Europe while pursuing rapprochement with Putin, has rattled the transatlantic NATO alliance.
Those concerns were only exacerbated Friday by the scene that played out in the White House, where the years-long US policy of massive support for Ukraine collapsed in a shouting match.
During the televised clash, Trump and Vice President JD Vance shouted at Zelensky, accusing him of not being “thankful” and refusing to accept their proposed truce terms.
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out, and if we’re out, you’ll fight it out and I don’t think it’s going to be pretty,” Trump said.
Though he refused to apologize, the day after Zelensky indicated that he was still open to signing the deal on Ukraine’s mineral wealth coveted by Trump, insisting that “despite the tough dialogue” Ukraine and the United States “remain strategic partners.”
“But we need to be honest and direct with each other to truly understand our shared goals,” the Ukrainian leader wrote on X.
Russia was meanwhile delighted.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called Zelensky an “insolent pig” who had received “a proper slap down.”
Zelensky’s Washington trip was a “complete failure,” Moscow said.
Passers-by on the streets of Moscow welcomed Trump’s war of words with his Ukrainian counterpart.
“Frankly speaking, it was very pleasing that (Zelensky) got such a rebuke in the White House,” nursery worker Galina Tolstykh told AFP.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock accused Trump of “switching... the roles of victim and aggressor” in the conflict, branding the footage of the argument “unspeakable.”
“Yesterday evening underlined that a new age of infamy has begun,” she said.
Trump has alarmed Kyiv and European allies with his abrupt U-turn in US policy, casting himself as a mediator between Putin and Zelensky and refusing to condemn the Russian invasion.
He said in the Oval Office that he had “spoken on numerous occasions” to Putin — more than has been publicly reported.
With fears over whether the United States will continue to support NATO mounting, Sunday’s gathering in the UK will also address the need for Europe to increase defense cooperation.
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is ready to “open the discussion” on a possible future European nuclear deterrent.
Germany’s likely next leader, Friedrich Merz, also stressed the need for the continent to move quickly to “achieve independence” from the United States on defense matters.
But Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban — the closest ally of Trump and the Kremlin in the European Union — vowed to oppose a bloc-wide agreement on the conflict at the upcoming gathering.
“I am convinced that the European Union — following the example of the United States — should enter into direct discussions with Russia on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace in Ukraine,” Orban wrote in a letter.
Meanwhile, Russia’s assault on Ukraine continued.
Russian infantry were storming the Ukrainian border from the Russian region of Kursk, near areas that were seized last summer by Ukrainian forces, Kyiv said Friday.
And Moscow said Saturday it had seized two more villages in the south of the eastern Donetsk region.
Trump cutoff of humanitarian parole for immigrants from Ukraine, 6 other countries challenged
- President Donald Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the US
- The plaintiffs include eight immigrants who entered the US legally before the Trump administration ended what it called the “broad abuse” of humanitarian parole
MIAMI: A group of American citizens and immigrants is suing the Trump administration for ending a long-standing legal tool presidents have used to allow people from countries where there’s war or political instability to enter and temporarily live in the US
The lawsuit filed late Friday night seeks to reinstate humanitarian parole programs that allowed in 875,000 migrants from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who have legal US resident as sponsors.
President Donald Trump has been ending legal pathways for immigrants to come to the US and implementing campaign promises to deport millions of people who are in the US illegally.
The plaintiffs include eight immigrants who entered the US legally before the Trump administration ended what it called the “broad abuse” of humanitarian parole. They can legally stay in the US until their parole expires, but the administration stopped processing their applications for asylum, visas and other requests that might allow them to remain longer.
None are identified by their real names because they fear deportation. Among them are Maksym and Maria Doe, a Ukrainian couple; Alejandro Doe, who fled Nicaragua following the abduction and torture of his father; and Omar Doe, who worked for more than 18 years with the US military in his home country of Afghanistan.
“They didn’t do anything illegal. They followed the rules,” Kyle Varner, a 40-year-old doctor and real estate investor from Spokane, Washington, who sponsored 79 Venezuelans and is part of the lawsuit, told The Associated Press. “They have done nothing but work as hard as they can. ... This is just such a grave injustice.”
Almost all of the immigrants sponsored by Varner have lived in his house for some time. He paid their plane tickets. He helped them learn English and get driver’s licenses and jobs. He had 32 applications that were awaiting approval when the Trump administration ended the program in January.
Other plaintiffs include two more US citizens who have sponsored immigrants, Sandra McAnany and Wilhen Pierre Victor, and the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a California-based organization that assists immigrants with legal advice.
“The Trump administration is trying to attack parole from all angles,” said Esther Sung, an attorney from the Justice Action Center, which filed the lawsuit with Human Rights First in federal court in Massachusetts and provided the AP a copy in advance. “The main goal, above all, is to defend humanitarian parole. These have been very, very successful processes.”
The US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Parole authority began in 1952 and has been used by Republican and Democratic presidents to admit people unable to use standard immigration routes because of time pressure or because their home country’s government lacks diplomatic relations with the US
Under parole, immigrants arrived “for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.” They are allowed to work while they seek another legal way to stay in the country.
Trump ordered an end to “categorical parole programs” the day he returned to office.
Joe Biden used parole authority more than any other American president, including for people who arrived using the government’s CBP One app. But the lawsuit covers only certain parole programs.
McAnany, a 57-year-old widow from Wisconsin who designs and teaches procurement and soft skills courses, sponsored 17 people from Venezuela and Nicaragua. She still has four pending applications for approval.
McAnany helped them adjust to their new country and find homes and schools. All now work more than 40 hours a week, pay taxes and pay for their health care, she said.
“I care so much about each of the people that I sponsor,” said McAnany. “I can’t just walk away and give up.”
Serbians chant ‘we deserve better’ as latest anti-corruption protest adds to pressure on Vucic
- The almost daily protests regularly draw tens of thousands of people and have rattled President Aleksandar Vucic’s firm grip on power
- Vucic has described the protests as a Western-orchestrated attempt to oust him from power
SERBIA: Tens of thousands of people joined protesting students in Serbia for a rally on Saturday against alleged injustice and corruption, many proclaiming “We deserve better.”
University students in the Balkan country that has been ruled firmly by a populist government for over a decade have been holding nationwide protests since the fatal train station canopy collapse in November that killed 15 people and which critics blame on government corruption.
The almost daily protests regularly draw tens of thousands of people and have rattled President Aleksandar Vucic’s firm grip on power. Vucic has described the protests as a Western-orchestrated attempt to oust him from power.
“We want the (state) institutions that work in the interest of all of us and not to our damage,” the students said in a statement. “We want a system that values knowledge and work, and not obedience and silence.”
Protesters from across the country gathered in Nis, some 200 kilometers (120 miles) south of Belgrade, for Saturday’s festival-style rally that was expected to last for 18 hours.
Students said the event, during which a decree would be symbolically passed, was “a wakeup call to move from apathy to action, from silence to a noisy struggle for a better future ... our pledge never to give up!”
With their determination, energy and creativity, the students have garnered widespread support among the citizens who largely have been disillusioned with mainstream politicians and have lost hope of changes.
Serbia is formally on the path toward European Union membership, but Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have been accused of stifling democratic freedoms and fueling rampant corruption since coming to power.
Residents in Nis staged a noisy welcome for the students on Friday evening as they marched into the city after walking for several days in groups from various directions.
‘This is the place to be today’
These student marches have become a rallying force in Serbia’s rural areas, which are traditionally pro-government. Everywhere students showed up people greeted them with food and refreshments, while many cried and kissed them.
“This is the place to be today. There is no place on earth where I belong more than here,” said pensioner Marjan Zivanovic, who came from Belgrade. “Here is love, here is joy, here is everything. Here is the future.”
Previously similar rallies were held in Novi Sad and in the central city of Kragujevac.
The Nis rally marks four months since the concrete canopy at the central train station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1.
The station building had been renovated twice in recent years as part of a wider infrastructure work with Chinese state companies. Many in Serbia believe the work on the building was sloppy and disregarded construction safety rules because of widespread corruption.
