Ukraine updates: US calls on North Korea to withdraw troops

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Kyiv's Western allies have failed to adequately respond to the involvement of North Korean troops in Russia's war with Kyiv. 

In an interview released Thursday, the Ukrainian leader said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "testing the reaction of the West, of NATO states and the reaction of South Korea."

"And if there is nothing — and I think that the reaction to this is nothing, it has been zero — then the number of North Korean troops on our border will be increased," he added.

Zelenskyy's comments came after the US and South Korean defense chiefs demanded that Pyongyang withdraw its troops from Russia. They warned that North Korean soldiers in Russian uniforms were being deployed for possible action against Ukrainian forces.

The deputy US Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood has told the Security Council that Washington has received information that indicates that "right now" there are 8,000 North Korean troops in Russia's Kursk region. 

"I have a very respectful question for my Russian colleague: does Russia still maintain that there are no DPRK troops in Russia?" Wood told the UN Security Council, referring to North Korea's official name — the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Russian representative in the 15-member Security Council did not respond.

Ukrainian rescue teams have retrieved the body of a 15-year-boy from the rubble of an Kharkiv apartment building hit overnight by a Russian 500-kilogram (1,100 pound) glide bomb, taking the death toll from the attack in Ukraine's second-largest city to three.

Earlier, a 12-year-old boy who had been found among the rubble died from severe injuries sustained in the attack. The body of an unidentified man has also been retrieved.

Officials had previously reported two deaths.

Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said at least 35 people were injured in the attack and that other victims might still be trapped in the debris.

Kharkiv, a city of 1.1 million, is about 30 kilometers (less than 20 miles) from the border with Russia and has come under frequent attack by Russian forces.

Ukrainian lawmakers debated a draft 2025 budget on Thursday that would see around 26% of GDP allocated to defense needs amid the full-scale Russian invasion.

According to the Finance Ministry, the draft budget foresees 2.2 trillion hryvnias (€49.09 billion, $53.38 billion) for national security and defense spending. That represents a 46 billion hryvnia increase compared with 2024.

"Security and defense remain the budget priority for next year. All taxes paid by people and businesses will be used to strengthen our defenders and military capabilities," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Telegram messenger.

Parliamentarians will debate the bill through several more readings before it is approved by December 1 at the latest, the ministry said,

It said they suggested 2,099 amendments to the draft.

In view of the high defense spending, Kyiv will need $38.4 billion in foreign financial aid to help cover other needs as well for 2025, according to officials.

Ukraine's military has said it shot down 17 out of 43 drones launched by Russia overnight, along with two guided missiles.

The air force said 23 drones were "locationally lost," probably as a result of Ukrainian electronic warfare, while three more left the airspace controlled by Ukraine.

Electronic warfare systems protect their location by sending out powerful signals that disrupt communication between drones and their pilots.

This causes the pilots to lose control of the drone and miss their target.

Russia and Iran intend to sign a treaty in the near future that will include closer cooperation on defense, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday.

"The treaty on a comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and Iran that is being prepared will become a serious factor in strengthening Russian-Iranian relations," Lavrov told state television.

"It will confirm the parties' desire for closer cooperation in the field of defense and interaction in the interests of peace and security at the regional and global levels," Lavrov added.

Iran, like North Korea, with which Moscow signed a similar partnership deal in June, is extremely hostile toward the US, and any close military ties between Russia and Iran will cause concern both in Washington and the West in general.

Russian forces have seized another village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the Russian Defense Ministry has said.

The Russian troops "as a result of active and decisive operations liberated the settlement of Yasnaya Polyana," the ministry said in a statement, using the Russian name for Yasna Polyana.

The small village is situated some 22 kilometers (14 miles) southwest of the industrial town of Kurakhove.

Invading Russian forces have been making rapid advances in the region for weeks and are drawing nearer the key target of Pokrovsk, a major logistics hub.

A Russian guided bomb struck a high-rise apartment block in Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv, on Wednesday, killing two including a child and injuring at least 34 people, officials said.

Governor Oleg Synegubov took to messaging platform Telegram, saying the boy who died had turned 12 in September and that another 15-year-old boy was under the rubble. 

Synegubov said that rescue operations are ongoing but the search was complicated due to the significant damage to the building and the threat of the structure collapsing. 

Before that, the city's mayor Igor Terekhov said that people were trapped in the upper floors of the building. 

Unverified videos circulating on social media showed a gaping hole in the facade of the building. Meanwhile Reuters Television footage showed rescue teams picking their way through piles of concrete and other materials extract the injured.

On Wednesday evening, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukraine's western allies to act in response to the strike. "Every decision they delay means at least dozens or even hundreds of such Russian bombs against Ukraine. Their decisions mean the lives of our people," he said on Telegram. 

Zelenskyy has time and again asked Western countriesto provide Ukraine with better defense equipment, including long-range weapons. 

Kharkiv lies close to the Russian border and is one of the key battlegrounds in Russia's war in Ukraine.

While it has remained in Ukraine's hands, the city has been severely pounded by Russian aerial attacks in the two-and-a-half years of the war. 

The US and South Korea have urged North Korea to withdraw its troops from Russia.

Washington claims that around 10,000 North Korean troops have been deployed in Russia, ready for action against Ukrainian forces as Moscow pursues its full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Moscow and Pyongyang have deepened their alliance as the Ukraine war has dragged on, but sending North Korean troops to fight against Kyiv's forces would represent a significant escalation that has sparked concern in the West.

"I call upon them to withdraw their troops out of Russia," US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said, echoing a call by his South Korean counterpart Kim Yong-hyun, who stood alongside him as he addressed reporters.

Austin said the US will "continue to work with allies and partners to discourage Russia from employing these troops in combat."

Nevertheless, there is a "good likelihood" that Moscow will still do just that, according to Austin.

South Korea's Kim said that Seoul's longstanding policy that it will not provide weapons to Ukraine remains in place, despite calls from Washington and Kyiv to reconsider.

The Kremlin's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said any claims that Pyongyang's forces were present on the front lines were "mere assertions."

tj,mk/kb (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)