The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that its air defense systems destroyed 34 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 27 over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine. The ministry did not mention the Kursk governor’s earlier statement that two “Ukrainian missiles” were destroyed over the region, Reuters reported.
At the same time, the Ukrainian army reported that its air defense units destroyed more than 10 Russian drones during a night attack on Kiev.
Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv military administration, said: “The UAVs flew in different directions towards Kyiv. The air raid alert lasted more than three hours in the city.”
The escalation of the conflict is indicated by the fact that Russia attacked Ukraine on Thursday with a new hypersonic medium-range ballistic missile, the Oresnyk. This was intended as a response to Kiev’s deployment of American and British missiles against Russia.
There is movement on the diplomatic front as well according to Reuters:
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will host NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Ankara on Monday to discuss the latest developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.
According to a Turkish official, the talks will also address the removal of obstacles to defense procurement between NATO allies and the military alliance’s joint fight against terrorism, as well as peace efforts in Ukraine.
Turkey, while condemning the Russian invasion and supporting Ukraine’s territorial integrity, opposes Western sanctions against Moscow. Erdogan recently criticized the US decision to allow Ukraine to launch long-range missiles inside Russia. According to the Turkish president, this would fuel the conflict further.
According to Moscow, the United States and its allies are entering into direct conflict with Russia by giving Ukraine the green light to deploy Western missiles on Russian territory. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday approved policy changes that lowered the threshold below which Russia could use nuclear weapons in response to a conventional attack.
Meanwhile, Russia is deploying another foreign power’s mercenaries on the frontline after recruiting North Korean soldiers into the war a month ago.
The Russian military has recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, in a dark human trafficking network that highlights growing ties between Moscow and the Houthi rebel group. THE Financial Times (FT) reports that the Yemeni recruits came with promises of high salaries and Russian citizenship, but upon arrival in Russia they were forced into military service and sent to the front line after a short training.
The conflict in Ukraine thus involves new foreign soldiers, including mercenaries from Yemen, Nepal, and India, as well as North Korean regular troops.
According to the documents seen by the FT, the recruitment was managed by a Houthi company founded by Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri and registered in Oman. Instead of promised jobs, such as “security” or “engineering” positions, the Yemeni men were forcibly contracted, and in many cases they could not even read the contracts, as they were written in Russian. The Houthi connection confirms that the group supported by Iran in the Yemeni civil war is strengthening its ties with Moscow, while the Russian-Western conflict is spreading on more and more fronts.
Since January 2024, the United States has been targeting Ansarallah, commonly known as the Houthi rebels, classified it as a specially designated global terrorist group.
U.S. diplomats warn of the extent of Russia-Huzi cooperation, including arms sales and support with targeting data for missile strikes.
Houthi rebels threatened global supply chains with missile attacks in the Red Sea in 2023, and now the recruitment of Yemeni mercenaries in Ukraine signals how the Russian conflict could take on new dimensions in the Middle East.
The situation of Yemeni recruits is also monitored by human rights organizations and the International Union of Yemeni Migrants. Although some of them managed to leave Russia and return to their homeland, many remain on the front lines in Ukraine or in training bases in Russia.
Cover Photo: Ukrainian soldiers from the Chervona Kalinya Brigade fire Soviet 2S1 artillery in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, Ukraine, on November 15, 2024. Photo credit: Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: www.portfolio.hu
