The United States is watching growing cooperation between Russia and China in the Arctic closely and some of their recent military collaboration in the region sends “concerning signals”, the U.S. Arctic ambassador said.  

Russia and China have stepped up military cooperation in the Arctic while deepening overall ties in recent years that include China supplying Moscow with dual-use goods despite Western sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. 

Russia and the United States are among eight countries with territory in the resource-rich Arctic. China calls itself a “near-Arctic” state and wants to create a “Polar Silk Road” in the Arctic, a new shipping route as the polar ice sheet recedes with rising temperatures.  

Michael Sfraga, the United States’ first ambassador-at-large for Arctic affairs, said the “frequency and the complexity” of recent military cooperation between Moscow and Beijing in the region sent “concerning signals”. 

“The fact that they are working together in the Arctic has our attention,” Sfraga, who was sworn in last month, told Reuters in a telephone interview from Alaska. “We are being both vigilant and diligent about this. We’re watching very closely this evolution of their activity.” 

“It raises our radar, literally and figuratively,” he added.

Sfraga cited a joint run by Russian and Chinese bomber planes off the coast of Alaska in July, and Chinese and Russian coast guard ships sailing together through the Bering Strait in October.  

He said these activities had been conducted in international waters, in line with international law, but the fact that the bombers flew off the coast of Alaska had raised concerns for U.S. security. 

“We do need to think about security, heighten our own alliances, our own mutual defences,” Sfraga said. “Alaska, the North American Arctic, is NATO’s western flank and so we need to think about the Arctic that way.” 

The activity was also a concern for U.S. allies as the Bering Strait and the Bering Sea give access to the North Pacific and South Pacific, he said. 

The Pentagon said in a report released in July that the growing alignment between Russia and China in the Arctic was “a concern”.  

China and Russia are trying to develop Arctic shipping routes as Moscow seeks to deliver more oil and gas to China amid Western sanctions. Beijing is seeking an alternative shipping route to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Malacca. 

The Arctic also holds fossil fuels and minerals beneath the land and the seabed that could become more accessible with global warming.  
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TOKYO — Japan and the European Union announced a sweeping new security and defense partnership in Tokyo on Friday. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hailed it as a historic and “very timely” step.

Borrell and his Japanese counterpart, Takeshi Iwaya, unveiled the pact to develop cooperation on joint military drills, the exchange of information related to the defense industry and space security, among other matters.

“I am extremely pleased to be here with Minister Iwaya to announce the conclusion of this security and defense partnership between the European Union and Japan,” Borrell said.

He called it the “the first agreement of this nature” the EU has made with an Asia-Pacific country, describing it as “historical and very timely.”

“We live in a very dangerous world” and “given the situation in both of our regions, this political framework deepens our ability to tackle emerging threats together,” Borrell told reporters.

He did not mention China, but Japan has previously called its neighbor its greatest security challenge as Beijing builds up military capacity in the region.

After the Tokyo talks, Borrell heads to South Korea, where concerns about North Korea will top the agenda.

The United States has said thousands of North Korean troops are in Russia readying to fight in Ukraine.

Pyongyang also test-fired one of its newest and most powerful missiles on Thursday, demonstrating its threat to the US mainland days ahead of elections.

Defense industries

The text of the EU-Japan Security and Defense Partnership, seen by Agence France-Presse, said they would promote “concrete naval cooperation,” including through activities such as joint exercises and port calls, which could also include “mutually designated third countries.”

It also said the EU and Japan would discuss “the development of respective defense initiatives including exchange of information on defense industry-related matters.”

Japan, which for decades has relied on the United States for military hardware, is also developing a new fighter jet with EU member Italy and Britain that is set to be airborne by 2035.

The agreement on industrial cooperation could “turbo-charge collaboration, such that joint defense projects between Japanese and European firms funded through EU mechanisms may be on the cards,” analyst Yee Kuang Heng of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy told AFP.

Japan is ramping up defense spending to the NATO standard of 2% of GDP by 2027, partly to counter China, which is increasing military pressure on Taiwan.

Beijing claims the self-ruled island as part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control.

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who could head a minority government after a disastrous general election last week, has said that “today’s Ukraine could be tomorrow’s East Asia.”

Ishiba has also called for the creation of a NATO-like regional alliance with its tenet of collective security, although he has conceded this will “not happen overnight.”

The same warning was issued by Ishiba’s predecessor, Fumio Kishida, who was hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden for a state visit in April at which the allies announced plans to boost their defense partnership.

On Friday, Borrell and Iwaya also “exchanged an instrument of ratification for Japan EU Strategic Partnership Agreement, or SPA,” Iwaya said, referring to a separate, previously agreed-upon pact.

“This SPA will formally enter into force on January 1 next year. It will be a legal foundation to strengthen the Japan-EU strategic partnership into the future,” Iwaya said.
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Washington — As North Korean troops prepare to join Russian forces in the war on Ukraine, Kyiv is stepping up a psychological warfare campaign to target the North Korean soldiers, a high-ranking Ukraine official said.

The effort is liable to get a boost from a team of South Korean military observers that Seoul’s defense minister, Kim Yong-hyun, said this week will be going to Ukraine to watch and analyze the North Korean troops on the battlefield.

Last week, the Ukrainian military intelligence service-run project “I Want to Live” released a Korean-language video message on YouTube and X. The project also posted a Korean-language text message on Telegram.

The messages urged North Korean soldiers to surrender, arguing that they do not have to “meaninglessly die on the land of another country.” It also offered to provide food, shelters and medical services.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the Center for Combating Disinformation under Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told VOA Ukrainian on Wednesday that “in the future, additional videos featuring North Koreans will be published.”

“The North Koreans will undergo training in modern warfare and then be used in actual combat,” Kovalenko said. “We (the Center for Combating Disinformation) are actively involved in identifying the individuals who have arrived and the units they are joining, as well as gathering evidence of their presence in Russia, their likely participation in combat against the Ukrainian army, and their presence in temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine.”

Influence campaign

Ukraine has been running similar psychological operations toward the Russian soldiers since the beginning of the Russian invasion, U.S. experts said.

“Ukraine has been doing that with the Russians early on in the war,” Bruce Bennett, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation, told VOA Korean on the phone Thursday. “They got a lot of Russians to defect, and I suspect they will try to do the same things with the North Koreans.”

Bennett added that drones can also be used for sending messages in leaflets and in audio form to North Korean soldiers in the war zone.

David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the Combined Forces Command of the U.S and South Korea, said this could be “a great opportunity” to learn how to employ psychological tactics on North Korean forces in the time of war.

“Bombing and gunfire doesn’t happen 24/7,” he told VOA Korean by phone on Wednesday. “Military operations are also characterized by large amounts of boredom and inactivity, where soldiers are waiting for something to happen, and this is the time when loudspeakers and leaflets can really have an effect, because those messages give them something to think about.”

Earlier this week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed in a phone call “to intensify the intelligence and expertise exchange” and “to develop an action strategy and a list of countermeasures,” according to a statement released by the Ukrainian presidential office.

Some experts in South Korea said the team of South Korean military observers headed to Ukraine will likely include psychological warfare strategists who can offer advice to the Ukrainian officials.

Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification, said psychological warfare could be a real threat to the North Korean army.

“In the case of North Korean soldiers, they now have been mobilized for a war without any justification,” he told VOA Korean by phone on Tuesday. “It is hardly likely that they have a strong will or high morale.”

South Korea’s role

Cho said the South Korean government can help Ukraine develop psychological tactics against North Korean soldiers, since the country “has the know-how of a long-term psychological war with North Korea.”

Ban Kil-joo is a senior research professor at Korea University’s Ilmin International Relations Institute. He told VOA Korean in a phone interview Tuesday that psychological warfare could help weaken the military cohesiveness between Russia and North Korea.

“The Ukrainians don’t know much about North Korea, don’t understand the North Korean culture, as we do,” Ban said. “We can provide indirect support in a more social sense, rather than military or operational support.”

Ban added that it is important for the South Korean team to be “well-integrated with the Ukrainian forces through its supporting role,” to achieve the desired political and operational effect of a psychological campaign.

Other experts, however, are not convinced that psychological warfare will be effective to persuade North Korean soldiers to surrender.

Mykola Polishchuk, a Ukrainian author who wrote the book Northern Korea in Simple Words, said Ukraine’s counterpropaganda will not work with North Korean soldiers.

“As for North Koreans, they are not particularly politicized,” Polishchuk told VOA Ukrainian. “These individuals have little interest in politics.”

Robert Rapson, a former charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, told VOA Korean that South Korea should carefully make a decision about whether to be engaged in Ukraine’s psychological warfare.

“If the ROK [Republic of Korea] does decide to deploy technical personnel to Ukraine to solely monitor and help advise the Ukraine military on matters related to North Korean troops deployed to the region, they would need to ensure they do not acquire, inadvertently or otherwise, status as combatants,” he said. “There are, of course, clear risks to ROK personnel whether they’re combatants or not.”

Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has deepened military ties with North Korea. North Korea has exported dozens of ballistic missiles and more than 18,000 containers of munitions and munitions-related material to Russia since the invasion, according to the U.S. State Department.

In June, the two countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement mandating immediate military assistance if either of them is attacked by a third country.

VOA Korean’s Kim Hyungjin contributed to this report.  
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A shadowy Russian political operator with close ties to the notorious Wagner Group and its late founder Yevgeny Prigozhin is detained in Chad on unexplained charges, adding a fresh chapter to his long career of mystery and intrigue.  

Russian officials and state-controlled media maintain that Maxim Shugaley, who was detained on September 19 along with two other Russians, is an innocent sociologist who was in Chad to deliver humanitarian aid and participate in a pro-Russian event in the capital, N’Djamena.    

But years of reporting on his exploits in countries as far-flung as Afghanistan and Libya present a picture of a master propagandist who has worked behind the scenes to advance the Kremlin’s interests with some of the world’s least reputable regimes. 

Shugaley, president of the St. Petersburg-based Foundation for National Values Protection, or FNZC, was arrested at N’Djamena’s airport “without explanation,” according to an account this week in the Russian news agency RIA Novosty. 

The report quoted the press attache at Russia’s mission in Chad saying the three Russians are being well-treated and that she looks forward to their early release. But it offered no explanation of why they were detained and little on why they were there. 

However the Russian daily Kommersant and a Paris-based weekly Jeune Afrique reported in late September and early October that Chadian military intelligence was behind Shugaley’s arrest, and said he was accused of espionage and influence activities on behalf of the Wagner Group.   

Kommersant said Shugaley maintains his innocence and “had no knowledge of Wagner activities in N’Djamena” — this despite his reputed role in directing communications and hybrid warfare activities by the Kremlin-financed mercenary, which according to the U.S. State Department plotted to overthrow the government of Chad last year. 

The Russian newspaper cited people close to Shugaley as saying that the “sociologist’s mission” in Chad was “strictly humanitarian.” It added that a suitcase in his possession at the time of his arrest “was full of souvenirs and cookies to be handed over at the pro-Russian rally in N’Djamena.”

Citing a source familiar with the case, Central African Republic-based Corbeau news Centrafrique reported that Shugaley and his companions were arrested for trying to “infiltrate the Chadian security services.”  

Whatever the truth of those reports, they are not out of character with previous accounts of Shugaley’s career and his own postings on Telegram — the Wagner Group’s favored messaging app — where he runs his own channel with almost 18,000 subscribers. 

In 2019, the FNZC organization that Shugaley heads was sanctioned by the U.S. State Department for serving in a covert operation to manipulate African politics in favor of the Kremlin by “sponsoring phony election monitoring missions,” and promoting “disinformation operations.”   

The Wall Street Journal profiled Shugaley in 2021 as a “spy” and a “shadowy figure” pursuing the Kremlin’s strategic goals across Africa.   

His latest post on Telegram, dated August 23, laments the death of Prigozhin, killed in a suspicious helicopter crash a year earlier. Shugaley calls the Wagner founder a “Russian hero” who is “very much needed now in the Kursk Oblast.” The post coincided with Ukraine’s military intrusion into Russia’s Kursk region. 

In earlier posts dating back to May of this year, Shugaley reported he was in Chad to observe the presidential elections, which he describes as successful, “despite the U.S. destabilizing efforts.” 

In June, Shugaley said in a Telegram post that he was in Chad “for the second time in less than two months” to prepare the introduction of a Russian House in N’Djamena, which he said was a “natural development” given the Chadians “anti-French sentiments and mistrust of the U.S. actions in the region.” 

In April 2023, The Washington Post reported that leaked U.S. intelligence documents showed the Wagner Group was trying to recruit “Chadian rebels and establish a training site for 300 fighters in the neighboring Central African Republic as part of an evolving plot to topple the Chadian government.”  

The European Union sanctioned Shugaley in February 2023 for operating “as the public relations arm” of the Wagner Group. 

Shugaley’s role “includes directing propaganda and disinformation campaigns in favor of the Wagner Group, particularly to improve the reputation of Wagner and support its deployment, as well as interfering in a covert manner on behalf of the Wagner group in the various countries where the group is active,” the EU said.  

In May 2019, Shugaley and his interpreter Samer Sueifan were jailed for 18 months in Libya on charges of espionage and election interference.  

Libyan officials said the mission of the two was to “recruit Libyans to gather information and to train them on how to influence any future Libyan elections.”      

Shugaley credited Prigozhin for his freedom in interviews with Russian media and in social media posts, saying that under his order, Wagner troops stormed the prison in Tripoli in December 2020 to free him. Prigozhin later commissioned an action movie lauding Shugaley and Wagner. His company, Concord, paid a $250,000 bonus to Shugaley and Sueifan.    

Shugaley is a common figure in Central Africa Republic, a territory where Wagner mercenaries have been deeply embedded in the security system since 2018.  

In February, the U.S. State Department issued a report titled, “The Wagner Group Atrocities in Africa: Lies and Truth,” which documented violations committed by the group in CAR, Libya, Sudan, and Mali.      

The State Department said, “In CAR, Wagner forces used indiscriminate killing, abductions, and rape to gain control of a key mining area near the city of Bambari, with survivors describing the attacks in detail.”    

A BBC documentary in 2019 reported that “at least six candidates were offered money by Russians in the lead-up to the 2018 presidential elections in Madagascar.”   

The BBC reported that Shugaley was among those “offering money” to various actors to sway the votes in favor of a Kremlin-backed candidate.    

According to the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, after the death of Prigozhin, Shugaley partnered with the notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was released from a U.S. jail in 2022 in a prisoner swap for the American basketball star Brittney Griner.  

The group said Shugaley assisted Bout in winning a seat in the regional assembly of the city of Ulyanovsk in September 2023 as part of an ultra-nationalist party.    

”In updates posted on the Telegram channel, Shugaley has reported on discussing plans with Bout to export military utility vehicles and aircraft to Africa,” the report said.  
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Germany will close three Iranian consulates in response to Iran’s announcement of the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd, a German Iranian national and a U.S. resident, earlier this week.

“We have repeatedly and unequivocally made it clear to Tehran that the execution of a German citizen will have serious consequences,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Thursday in announcing the closure of the consulates in Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg.

Germany will allow Iran’s embassy in Berlin to remain open. And Germany will “continue to maintain our diplomatic channels and our embassy in Tehran,” Baerbock said.

“The fact that this assassination took place in the light of the latest developments in the Middle East shows that [Iran’s] dictatorial, unjust regime … does not act according to normal diplomatic logic,” she said. “It is not without reason that our diplomatic relations are already at an all-time low.”

Sharmahd, 69, was accused of a role in the deadly bombing of a mosque in Shiraz in 2008. He was convicted of the capital offense of “corruption on Earth,” a term Iranian authorities use to refer to a broad range of offenses, including those related to Islamic morals.

His family has denied the charges against him.

In an exclusive interview with VOA’s Persian Service, Sharmahd’s daughter Ghazaleh Sharmahd warned that her father’s execution on Monday would not silence the movement for justice.

“They made a huge mistake, thinking that by killing my father and the people of Iran, these movements would end. But they were wrong — killing only makes these movements stronger, more intense and more energized. … The Islamic Republic made a huge mistake,” she said.

Ghazaleh Sharmahd also said she is seeking the truth of her father’s death. She told VOA that the Islamic Republic informed the U.S. and Germany about her father’s death.

“They accept the words of terrorists and send me their condolences?” she said. “They have a duty to investigate what really happened.”

VOA’s Persian Service contributed to this report. Some information came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Turkey is seeing a boom in winemaking, with hundreds of new producers emerging over the last few years. The trend runs counter the Islamist, conservative policies of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that have included restrictions and taxes on alcohol. Dorian Jones reports from Manisa, Turkey.
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Vienna — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico begins a six-day visit to China Thursday that includes a meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and stops in the central city of Hefei and Shanghai to attend the opening ceremony for this year’s China International Import Expo. 

Analysts say China is hoping to use the visit to strengthen ties with Slovak’s prime minister who is an ally of Viktor Orban and, like Hungary’s leader, has been critical of Russian sanctions and the EU’s support of Ukraine. 

Since coming to power, Fico has been interested in a more pro-China foreign policy. His trip to China, which was scheduled for June, was aborted due to an assassination attempt in May and has not been possible until now.

Fico is the longest-serving prime minister since the founding of the Republic of Slovakia in 1993.

Since first taking office in 2006, Fico has stepped down twice between 2010 and 2012 and between 2018 and 2023. In 2018, he resigned and gave way to his political ally, Peter Pellegrini, because of a political crisis sparked by the murder of investigative journalist Ján Kuciak.

After Pellegrini’s defeat in the 2020 parliamentary elections, the Ordinary People and the Independent Personalities Party formed a new coalition government. During this period, Slovakia pushed for a more pro-Taiwan and values-oriented diplomatic line, which drew resentment in Beijing.

In the 2023 parliamentary elections, Fico won again and returned to power.

The Fico government advocates an “all-azimuth” foreign policy, including strengthening cooperation with Russia and China. In addition to this year’s trip to China, Fico plans to visit Russia next year to attend the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Matej Šimalčík, executive director of the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, told VOA the so-called “all-azimuth” foreign policy is a euphemism that means “to engage in economic relations with any country, without taking any considerations for political values, human rights, or security considerations.” 

Šimalčík said, “Fico’s government has also markedly toned down the scope of interactions with Taiwan, with some of his close political allies being outright proponents of PRC’s [China’s] interpretation of the ‘One-China Principle,” which holds that Taiwan is an inalienable part of China.

Filip Šebok, head of the Prague office at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies, said, “Fico has many times declared he does not want ‘Brussels’ to dictate Slovakia on these issues, and for him, it is a way to boost his credentials in leading a ‘sovereign’ Slovak foreign policy, despite criticism.

“Actually, domestically, it is good for Fico to claim he is doing something that is opposite to what is the Western mainstream, as he can maintain the support of his electorate. It is also a way to differentiate from the previous government, which was hawkish on Russia, and on China to some extent as well.”

Analysts say that Fico’s visit to China also serves an economic purpose.

Pavel Havlíček, a research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Fico is seeking partnerships and investments from countries outside of Europe.

“Among them, Russia and China are playing a special place, as was repeatedly mentioned when — for example — referring to the plan of the Slovak government to restore economic relations with Russia after the war.

“In the case of the PRC, the Slovak government is seeing investments and enhanced relations, too, to compensate for the lack of economic growth.”

Šebok said the Slovak government has pledged to focus more on supporting economic engagement, such as boosting Slovak exporters or attracting investments in Slovakia.

“The government has, for example, increased the number of economic diplomats around the world and also opened new embassies in Asia or Africa explaining them mostly as a way to boost economic diplomacy,” Šebok said.

“In this perspective, China is presented as a major economic partner, and Fico will be leading a relatively large business delegation to China. Fico specifically wants to engage China in PPP [public private partnership] projects for the reconstruction/construction of transport infrastructure around the country.”

Fico plans to work with China to promote large-scale infrastructure projects in Slovakia, including the reconstruction of roads and bridges, the expansion of the railway between the capital Bratislava and the city of Komárno, the completion of the Bratislava highway bypass and the construction of a hydroelectric power plant.

In the recent vote on European tariffs on electric vehicles from China, the Fico government voted against it.

“Slovakia, through the Volkswagen plant, has exported a large number of cars to China,” Šebok said. “It is particularly exposed to Chinese retaliation to EU tariffs on Chinese EV imports, as China directly hinted that it might target large engine vehicles from the EU, which are exported from Germany and Slovakia.

“What is paradoxical is that tariffs on Chinese EVs can actually be also indirectly good for Slovakia, as they can push more Chinese EV producers to set up manufacturing in Europe as a way to avoid tariffs,” he added.

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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The governor of northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region said Thursday one person was dead and 29 others injured after a Russian missile strike on a residential building.

Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram the person killed in the late Wednesday attack was 11 years old.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian attack hit a nine-story building, and he reiterated his calls for more help in defending Ukraine.

“Partners see what happens every day,” Zelenskyy said. “In these circumstances, every delayed decision on their part means dozens or even hundreds more Russian bombs used against Ukraine. Their decisions are the lives of our people. That is why we must stop Russia together — and do so with all possible force.”

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said Thursday that Ukrainian air defenses downed a wave of drones targeting the Ukrainian capital overnight.

Popko reported on Telegram that falling debris from downed drones damaged two residential buildings and an administrative building.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it shot down 21 Ukrainian drones.

The intercepts took place over the Rostov, Kursk, Volgograd, Bryansk, Belgorod and Voronezh regions, and over the Black Sea, the ministry said.

North Korean troops

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-hyun, urged North Korea on Wednesday to withdraw from Russia an estimated 10,000 troops, which both countries believe are headed to fight alongside Russia in its war in Ukraine.

“They’re doing this because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has lost a lot of troops, a lot of troops. And, you know, he has a choice of either getting other people to help him, or he can mobilize. And he doesn’t want to mobilize, because then the people in Russia will begin to understand the extent of his losses, of their losses,” Austin said during a joint news conference at the Pentagon.

More than a half-million Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale illegal invasion on February 24, 2022, U.S. officials say. Russia, they say, is now turning to pariah state North Korea to bolster its forces.

“Kim Jong Un didn’t hesitate to sell out his young people and troops as cannon fodder mercenaries,” Kim Yong-hyun said. “I believe such activities are a war crime that is not only anti-humanitarian but also anti-peaceful.”

Western nations have expressed concerns about what Kim Jong Un’s regime will get in return from Moscow for its troops. North Korea is under international sanctions for its illicit nuclear ballistic missile programs.

The South Korean defense minister said it was likely that North Korea would seek nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology in exchange for the troops, escalating security threats on the peninsula and across the globe.

UN Security Council meeting

At the United Nations, Ukraine — with the support of the United States, Britain, France, Japan, South Korea, Slovenia and Malta — requested the Security Council meet to discuss the development.

Russia’s envoy dismissed the meeting, saying it was convened to tarnish Moscow with more lies and disinformation, adding it was “bare-faced lies” that North Korean soldiers are in Russia.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia’s comments appeared to contradict Putin, who last week did not deny that North Korean troops were currently in Russia, saying it was up to Moscow to decide how to deploy them as part of a mutual defense security pact that he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June.

Nebenzia went on to assert that the Western nations were making accusations about North Korean troops assisting Moscow to lure South Korea into providing Ukraine with arms.

“We can see the Western spectacle in the Security Council today pursuing another goal. The Zelenskyy regime and collaborators for two years have been trying to compel the Republic of Korea [South Korea] to more actively cooperate with the Kyiv regime, and to have them provide and supply the much-needed lethal weapons. And here, the anti-Pyongyang frenzied rhetoric is very convenient for Washington, London and Brussels, because their own supply is something that the Kyiv regime has drained,” Nebenzia said. “We do hope that our South Korean colleagues will be wise enough not to fall for this trick.”

Since the war started, Seoul has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and sent both humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv but has not sent weapons, in line with its policy of not arming countries actively engaged in conflicts. On Tuesday, Seoul said it could consider sending weapons to Ukraine in response to the North dispatching troops to Russia.

Troop estimates

Ukraine’s ambassador said as many as 12,000 North Korean troops are being trained at five training grounds in Russia’s eastern military district.

“This contingent includes at least 500 officers of the DPRK army, with at least three generals from the general staff,” Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s full name. “Subsequently, it is planned to form at least five units or formations from DPRK military personnel, consisting of 2,000 to 3,000 servicemen each.”

The troops’ identities are expected to be concealed, Kyslytsya said, and they will be provided with Russian military uniforms and weapons and identity papers. They are likely to be integrated into units with ethnic minorities from the Asian part of Russia, he said.

“According to available information, between October 23 and 28, at least seven aircraft carrying military personnel of up to 2,100 soldiers flew from the Eastern Military District to Russia’s border with Ukraine,” Kyslytsya said, adding that they are expected to begin directly participating in combat operations against Ukrainian troops in November.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that a “small number” of North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where they are likely to be used in combat against Ukrainian troops. Kyslytsya told the Security Council that they number about 400.

Pyongyang and Moscow are in close contact and are entitled to develop bilateral relations in many fields, said North Korea’s envoy, citing their strategic partnership treaty.

“If Russia’s sovereignty and security interests are exposed to and threatened by continued dangerous attempts of the United States and the West, and if it is judged that we should respond to them with something, we will make a necessary decision,” Ambassador Kim Song told the council.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Pentagon and United Nations — U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-hyun, urged North Korea on Wednesday to withdraw from Russia an estimated 10,000 troops, which both countries believe are headed to fight alongside Russia in its war in Ukraine.

“They’re doing this because [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has lost a lot of troops, a lot of troops. And, you know, he has a choice of either getting other people to help him, or he can mobilize. And he doesn’t want to mobilize, because then the people in Russia will begin to understand the extent of his losses, of their losses,” Austin said during a joint news conference at the Pentagon.

More than a half-million Russian troops have been killed or wounded in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale illegal invasion on February 24, 2022, U.S. officials say. Russia, they say, is now turning to pariah state North Korea to bolster its forces.

“Kim Jong Un didn’t hesitate to sell out his young people and troops as cannon fodder mercenaries,” Kim said. “I believe such activities are a war crime that is not only anti-humanitarian but also anti-peaceful.”

Western nations have expressed concerns about what Kim Jong Un’s regime will get in return from Moscow for its troops. North Korea is under international sanctions for its illicit nuclear ballistic missile programs.

The South Korean defense minister said it was likely that North Korea would seek nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missile technology in exchange for the troops, escalating security threats on the peninsula and across the globe.

UN Security Council meeting

At the United Nations, Ukraine — with the support of the United States, Britain, France, Japan, South Korea, Slovenia and Malta — requested the Security Council meet to discuss the development.

Russia’s envoy dismissed the meeting, saying it was convened to tarnish Moscow with more lies and disinformation, adding it was “bare-faced lies” that North Korean soldiers are in Russia.

Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia’s comments appeared to contradict Putin, who last week did not deny that North Korean troops were currently in Russia, saying it was up to Moscow to decide how to deploy them as part of a mutual defense security pact that he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June.

Nebenzia went on to claim that the Western nations were making accusations about North Korean troops assisting Moscow to lure South Korea into providing Ukraine with arms.

“We can see the Western spectacle in the Security Council today pursuing another goal. The Zelenskyy regime and collaborators for two years have been trying to compel the Republic of Korea [South Korea] to more actively cooperate with the Kyiv regime, and to have them provide and supply the much-needed lethal weapons. And here, the anti-Pyongyang frenzied rhetoric is very convenient for Washington, London and Brussels, because their own supply is something that the Kyiv regime has drained,” Nebenzia said. “We do hope that our South Korean colleagues will be wise enough not to fall for this trick.”

Since the war started, Seoul has joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and sent both humanitarian and financial support to Kyiv but has not sent weapons, in line with its policy of not arming countries actively engaged in conflicts. On Tuesday, Seoul said it could consider sending weapons to Ukraine in response to the North dispatching troops to Russia.

Troop estimates

Ukraine’s ambassador said as many as 12,000 North Korean troops are being trained at five training grounds in Russia’s eastern military district.

“This contingent includes at least 500 officers of the DPRK army, with at least three generals from the general staff,” Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya said, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s full name. “Subsequently, it is planned to form at least five units or formations from DPRK military personnel, consisting of 2,000 to 3,000 servicemen each.”

The troops’ identities are expected to be concealed, Kyslytsya said, and they will be provided with Russian military uniforms and weapons and identity papers. They are likely to be integrated into units with ethnic minorities from the Asian part of Russia, he said.

“According to available information, between October 23 and 28, at least seven aircraft carrying military personnel of up to 2,100 soldiers flew from the Eastern Military District to Russia’s border with Ukraine,” Kyslytsya said, adding that they are expected to begin directly participating in combat operations against Ukrainian troops in November.

The Pentagon said Tuesday that a “small number” of North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where they are likely to be used in combat against Ukrainian troops. Kyslytsya told the Security Council that they number about 400.

Pyongyang and Moscow are in close contact and are entitled to develop bilateral relations in many fields, said North Korea’s envoy, citing their strategic partnership treaty.

“If Russia’s sovereignty and security interests are exposed to and threatened by continued dangerous attempts of the United States and the West, and if it is judged that we should respond to them with something, we will make a necessary decision,” Ambassador Kim Song told the council.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.
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State prosecutors in the country of Georgia said Wednesday that they had initiated an investigation into Saturday’s parliamentary election amid claims that the vote was rigged.  

The Georgian Dream ruling party won the election with 54% of the vote, according to the electoral commission, a figure that would give the party a clear majority in Parliament.

The opposition alleged the election was rigged. Western countries and international observers also raised concerns, citing instances of voter intimidation, vote buying, double voting and violence.

The opposition took its protest to the streets of Tbilisi early this week in a rally condemning the results.

Prosecutors have summoned President Salome Zourabichvili, who is aligned with the pro-Western opposition, to testify, but she questioned why she should provide testimony about election rigging.

“It’s not up to the president to provide proof of election fraud,” she told reporters Wednesday. “Observers and everyday citizens have shown proofs of how massive the rigging of elections was.”

The investigative body, she said, “should have found the evidence itself.”

Zourabichvili charged in an interview with Reuters on Monday that Georgian Dream used a Russian methodology to falsify some election results.

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, a member of Georgian Dream, has called on  Zourabichvili to turn over any evidence of rigging to authorities. He said he believed she did not have such evidence.

Zourabichvili said the opposition was calling for an investigation “conducted by an international mission with the adequate mandate and qualification” to look into how the election was conducted. Until that can be done, she said, “this election cannot and will not have legitimacy or trust.” 

Some election observers have been cautious about labeling Georgia’s vote as rigged.  Some observers, including the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, admitted there were reports of voter irregularities, but the organization stopped short of labeling the election as rigged.

Russia has denied any interference in Georgia’s election.   

Georgia’s election came at a crucial moment for the former Soviet republic as it seeks to join the European Union. However, Georgian Dream is seen by many as more aligned with Russia than with the EU.
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WASHINGTON — Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has been talking on a consistent basis with Russian President Vladimir Putin are still reverberating among current and former U.S. officials, almost a week after news of the conversations first surfaced.

Musk, who owns electric car maker Tesla and the X social media platform, also owns SpaceX, a commercial spaceflight company that has numerous contracts with the U.S. government, doing work for the Department of Defense and U.S. space agency NASA.

Some of that work is so sensitive that the United States has given Musk high-level security clearances due to his knowledge of the programs, raising concerns among some that top secret U.S. information and capabilities could be at risk.

According to current and former U.S., European and Russian officials who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, such concerns may be warranted.

During one conversation, those officials said, Putin allegedly asked Musk not to activate Starlink, a SpaceX subsidiary that provides satellite internet services, over Taiwan as a favor to China.

“I think it should be investigated,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson told the Semafor World Economy Summit on Friday, a day after The Journal published its report.

“I don’t know that that story is true,” Nelson said, adding, if it is, “I think that would be concerning, particularly for NASA, for the Department of Defense, for some of the intelligence agencies.”

Russia and Musk deny frequent calls

Musk has previously denied frequent calls with Putin. In 2022, Musk said he had spoken to the Russian leader just once, but The Journal said there have been repeated conversations since then.

Musk has not commented or responded to the Journal article on X. Russia has also denied there have been frequent conversations between Putin and Musk.

The Pentagon has so far declined to refute or confirm the allegations.

“We have seen the reporting from The Wall Street Journal but cannot corroborate the veracity of those reports,” Defense Department spokesperson Sue Gough told VOA in an email late Friday.

“[We] would refer you to Mr. Musk to speak to his private communications,” Gough said, adding that, by law, the department does not comment on the details or status of anyone’s security clearance.

“We expect everyone who has been granted a security clearance, including contractors, to follow the prescribed procedures for reporting foreign contacts,” she said.

Former U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to VOA said the reported conversations, since confirmed by other U.S. news organizations citing their own confidential sources, raise significant questions.

“There is no doubt that Russia is cultivating many possible channels of influence in the United States and other Western countries,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior CIA officer who now teaches at Georgetown University.

“Russia would regard a wealthy and influential business mogul such as Musk as potentially a highly useful channel and thus a relationship worth nurturing,” he said.

Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA chief of staff and former senior director of the White House Situation Room, is also wary.

“It does get the spider-sense tingling,” he told VOA.

“If the reports of Musk’s repeated conversations with Vladimir Putin are true, I would definitely have some concerns,” Pfeiffer said. “Russia under Putin will cultivate support wherever it can be bought, cajoled or coerced.

“Putin has equal opportunity security services that will take advantage of any opportunity to get foreign business leaders to influence their governments to align with Russian interests,” he said.

Concerns don’t equal wrongdoing

Former officials like Pillar and Pfeiffer, though, caution there is a difference between concerns and actual wrongdoing.

Other former officials note that even if Musk engaged in conversations that could make some in government uncomfortable, just having those conversations is not necessarily illegal.

“Americans are allowed to talk to essentially whomever they want,” said a former national security prosecutor, who spoke to VOA on the condition of anonymity. “There’s no inherent limitation.”

And in the case of a high-profile individual who oversees companies with global reach, conversations with foreign officials could be unavoidable.

“For a businessman, there may be commercially legitimate reasons to have those communications,” the former prosecutor said. “It’s when a businessman is having those communications, perhaps for political reasons or even proto-diplomatic reasons, that it gets probably more concerning from a counterintelligence perspective.”

There also may not be any legal issues with a potential failure by someone like Musk to voluntarily disclose conversations with foreign leaders. Hiding such conversations when asked about them, however, could wade into criminal territory.

Still, given the value the U.S. gets from Musk’s companies, U.S. officials may feel like they have little recourse.

“It is one of those unfair things in life that if the government has a unique need for you, you can get away with more and still get a security clearance,” the former prosecutor said. “Someone who has unique value is going to get more accommodation.”
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LONDON — Britain has detected its first case of new mpox variant clade Ib, the country’s health security agency (UKHSA) said Wednesday, adding that the risk to the population remained low.  

The clade Ib variant is a new form of the virus that was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in August after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to neighboring countries in Africa.  

The case, in a patient who had recently traveled to affected countries in Africa, was detected in London and the individual has been transferred to a specialist hospital, the UKHSA said.  

Close contacts of the case are being followed up by UKHSA and partner organizations, the UKHSA added.  

There have been cases of mpox clade Ib reported in Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Sweden, India and Germany, as well as Congo. It is a different form of the virus from clade II, which spread globally in 2022, largely among men who have sex with men.  

Mpox is a viral infection that typically causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions, and while usually mild it can kill. Clade Ib is thought to cause more severe disease than clade II.  

Both forms can be transmitted through close physical contact, including sexual contact.  

The United Kingdom authorities said they would not provide any more details about the patient, but added that the person’s contacts were being followed up and would be offered testing and vaccination as needed, as well as further care if they test positive or have symptoms.  

According to the latest WHO figures, there have been more than 44,000 confirmed and suspected cases of mpox in Africa this year, and more than 1,000 deaths, largely in Congo.
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China’s response to Russia’s growing influence over North Korea and its leader, Kim Jong Un, likely combines “exasperation” and “panic” as Beijing appears to be losing control over its client state, according to former U.S. policy and intelligence officials.

They noted that the explicit security partnership between China’s two neighbors —Russia and North Korea — could undermine China’s strategic position in East Asia and has long-term implications that are not beneficial for China.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced that North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will hold “strategic consultations” in Moscow with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, as the United States, South Korea, and NATO express alarm that Pyongyang has sent thousands of troops to train in Russia.

U.S. officials believe Russia intends to use North Korean soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region. South Korea has condemned that as a significant security threat to the international community.

In Beijing, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Rudenko held talks Wednesday, with Wang reaffirming the strong ties between the two nations. The officials exchanged views on Ukraine but did not disclose details of their discussion.

But Chinese officials have avoided direct comments on North Korea dispatching thousands of troops to Russia.

“China calls for all parties to deescalate the situation and strive for the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis. This position remains unchanged,” Lin Jian, a spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, repeated Beijing’s stance during a briefing on Tuesday.  

China’s panic

“The radio silence in Beijing on this subject is staggering,” said Dennis Wilder, a former senior intelligence official with the CIA.

Wilder said Chinese President Xi Jinping is unlikely to say anything publicly as he faces an unpredictable Kim Jong Un.

“The Chinese have been very careful about nuclear assistance to the North Koreans, keeping them on IV drip of economic support so North Korea remains stable. But if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin goes down the road of nuclear assistance, this will bolster the American alliances in East Asia, maybe creating a true NATO.”

“And so [Chinese President Xi Jinping is] in a very, very difficult spot,” said Wilder during a seminar hosted by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS, on Tuesday.

Wilder suggested that the U.S. could leverage its intelligence channels with China for joint data collection and analysis.

Former White House national security council senior official Victor Cha said that by sending troops, North Korea is making a “downpayment” to Russia on a mutual security partnership — something Pyongyang could never secure from Beijing.

In China, he said, “There’s probably a combination of a little bit of exasperation, a little bit of panic and a little bit of they don’t know what to do with regard to the current situation.

“The panic is that Russia now has arguably much more influence over North Korea than China does,” added Cha, who is currently president of the Geopolitics and Foreign Policy Department at CSIS.

Both Wilder and Cha served on former U.S. president George W. Bush’s National Security Council.

Language barrier  

Other military analysts noted that while North Korean soldiers could gain real-world experience in combat operations simply by deploying to another country, they would also encounter significant challenges.

“You also have an immense language problem,” said Colonel Mark Cancian, who spent over three decades in the U.S. Marine Corps and is now a senior adviser with the CSIS International Security Program. 

He questioned how a group of North Koreans could effectively integrate with a Russian military unit and communicate and operate together.

The possibility of Russia transferring technology related to ballistic missiles, air defenses and nuclear weapons to North Korea is “probably the most dangerous” scenario from the U.S. point of view, according to Cancian.

Violation of UNSC resolutions

On Tuesday, U.S. officials disputed Russian foreign minister Lavrov’s assertion that military assistance between Russia and North Korea does not violate international law.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that “Russia’s training of DPRK soldiers involving arms or related material,” as well as “any training or assistance involving DPRK soldiers in the use of ballistic missiles or other arms,” constitutes a direct violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. He was referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced plans to exchange delegations to coordinate actions and share intelligence regarding North Korean troop deployments to Russia.

This week, Kyiv’s special envoy to South Korea will begin talks with South Korean officials.

In Washington, U.S. officials said they would welcome increased South Korean support for Ukraine. The South Korean government indicated that it would consider sending “weapons for defense and attack” and may also dispatch military and intelligence personnel to Ukraine to analyze North Korean battlefield tactics and assist in interrogations of captured North Koreans.

“We, of course, welcome any country supporting our Ukrainian partners as they continue to defend their territorial integrity and sovereignty,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told VOA during a recent briefing.
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London — Thousands of Russians, including soldiers, have fled their country to seek asylum in the West since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, although only a fraction of asylum applications has been approved. However, in a landmark case, France has allowed several Russian army deserters to enter the country to seek refugee status. Anti-war activists hope it will prompt more Russian soldiers to flee.

Alexander, who does not want to give his family name for fear of political retaliation, is among the six Russian men and four of their partners permitted to enter France in recent months. He and his wife, Irina, are now living in the French city of Caen as they await a court decision on their asylum applications.

In January 2022, as Russia was preparing its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Alexander recounted that he was told to go to Russian-occupied Crimea for military exercises. He did not want to go — but was told he had no choice.

Instead, his unit crossed the border into Ukraine as part of the invasion force. 

“I was personally in shock; I didn’t understand what was happening,” Alexander told Agence France-Presse in an interview. “We had just crossed the border into Ukraine. I went to see my commander and asked him: ‘What’s going on? Why are we here? Why have we crossed the border? Why are we on the territory of another country?’ … I didn’t get any answers to my questions.”

Alexander eventually managed to flee the army. “I realized then that I only had two choices: either leave Russia or go to prison. Because going back to the front — I didn’t have the slightest desire, nor the moral possibility,” he said.

“Maybe, thanks to my example, someone will be inspired and want to quit the army. The weaker the army at the front is, the fewer people there are, the quicker the war will end and Ukraine will win,” the 26-year-old told AFP.

Alexander and Irina initially fled to Kazakhstan, where they connected with other Russians escaping the war. However, many Russian exiles say they don’t feel safe in former Soviet countries. Army deserters face 10 years or more in prison if caught and returned to Russia. 

A French court ruled in 2023 that Russians who refuse to fight can claim refugee status, but most are not able to travel abroad to lodge an asylum application, said Ian Bond, a Russia expert and deputy director of the Centre for European Reform.

“It’s relatively easy for Russians still to get to countries in the former Soviet Union. Russians have two passports — they have an internal passport and some have a foreign passport. Particularly for people of military age or active servicemen, even getting their hands on a foreign passport is extremely difficult,” Bond told VOA.

But France granted permission for Alexander and Irina, along with eight other Russians, to enter the country and apply for asylum. It’s believed they arrived in Paris on separate flights from Kazakhstan without passports or travel documents, although the exact details of their journeys have not been released.

“There are a number of ways in which they could have gotten to France, and I think they’re not the first Russian deserters to get asylum in the West. But this seems to be a larger group — rather than in the past [when] I think there have just been some scattered individuals,” said analyst Bond.

The decision followed months of advocacy and campaigning by organizations like Paris-based Russie-Libertes, which encourage Russians to desert the army. The groups say the deserters were meticulously vetted for their anti-war stance.

Olga Prokopieva, the head of Russie-Libertes, said France’s decision to allow the group of army deserters into the country was “unprecedented” and urged other European countries to follow suit. “It has taken us a year of talks. We have tried so many things,” she told Agence France-Presse.

However, Prokopieva told VOA via email on October 29 that Russie-Libertes would no longer be commenting on or publicizing the case, an indication of the sensitivity of the asylum applications.

Get Lost, a Georgia-based organization that helps Russians flee their country, claims to have aided more than 38,000 people, including thousands of soldiers. It also helped Alexander and Irina, along with the eight other Russians allowed to enter France.

Many European nations will have security concerns, said Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform.

“There will be some, maybe in eastern Europe, who will say Russians are always a security risk; we should not be encouraging this. There will be others, and I would be among them, who would say the more people that we can encourage to leave Russia, the more acute [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s shortage of manpower will be — not just for the armed forces, but also for the military industrial complex.” 

“I think the fact that Russia has brought some thousands of North Korean troops to the battlefield is an indication that the manpower shortage is really starting to bite. But certainly, you’ll have to scrutinize these people quite closely to make sure that you aren’t importing Russian special forces disguised as deserters,” Bond told VOA.

It’s not clear if France intends to allow more Russian deserters to enter the country and claim asylum. The French foreign ministry did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

Since fleeing Russia, deserter Alexander and Irina have created a YouTube channel aimed at other Russian soldiers.

“Maybe with the help of this YouTube channel, the soldiers who have already taken this step, who have left their unit, Russia, the conflict zone, will be able to pass on these ideas to those who are still there, who are at a crossroads, who decide to flee or stay,” Irina said.

Sergei, another of the Russian deserters permitted to enter France, said Russian soldiers always have a choice.

“There is always a possibility to lay down your arms, not to kill other people and to end your participation in this war,” the 27-year-old told AFP.   Thousands of Russians, including soldiers, have fled their country to seek asylum in the West since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, although only a fraction of asylum applications has been approved. However, in a landmark case, France has allowed several Russian army deserters to enter the country to seek refugee status. Anti-war activists hope it will prompt more Russian soldiers to flee.

Alexander, who does not want to give his family name for fear of political retaliation, is among the six Russian men and four of their partners permitted to enter France in recent months. He and his wife, Irina, are now living in the French city of Caen as they await a court decision on their asylum applications.

In January 2022, as Russia was preparing its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Alexander recounted that he was told to go to Russian-occupied Crimea for military exercises. He did not want to go — but was told he had no choice.

Instead, his unit crossed the border into Ukraine as part of the invasion force. 

“I was personally in shock; I didn’t understand what was happening,” Alexander told Agence France-Presse in an interview. “We had just crossed the border into Ukraine. I went to see my commander and asked him: ‘What’s going on? Why are we here? Why have we crossed the border? Why are we on the territory of another country?’ … I didn’t get any answers to my questions.”

Alexander eventually managed to flee the army. “I realized then that I only had two choices: either leave Russia or go to prison. Because going back to the front — I didn’t have the slightest desire, nor the moral possibility,” he said.

“Maybe, thanks to my example, someone will be inspired and want to quit the army. The weaker the army at the front is, the fewer people there are, the quicker the war will end and Ukraine will win,” the 26-year-old told AFP.

Alexander and Irina initially fled to Kazakhstan, where they connected with other Russians escaping the war. However, many Russian exiles say they don’t feel safe in former Soviet countries. Army deserters face 10 years or more in prison if caught and returned to Russia. 

A French court ruled in 2023 that Russians who refuse to fight can claim refugee status, but most are not able to travel abroad to lodge an asylum application, said Ian Bond, a Russia expert and deputy director of the Centre for European Reform.

“It’s relatively easy for Russians still to get to countries in the former Soviet Union. Russians have two passports — they have an internal passport and some have a foreign passport. Particularly for people of military age or active servicemen, even getting their hands on a foreign passport is extremely difficult,” Bond told VOA.

But France granted permission for Alexander and Irina, along with eight other Russians, to enter the country and apply for asylum. It’s believed they arrived in Paris on separate flights from Kazakhstan without passports or travel documents, although the exact details of their journeys have not been released.

“There are a number of ways in which they could have gotten to France, and I think they’re not the first Russian deserters to get asylum in the West. But this seems to be a larger group — rather than in the past [when] I think there have just been some scattered individuals,” said analyst Bond.

The decision followed months of advocacy and campaigning by organizations like Paris-based Russie-Libertes, which encourage Russians to desert the army. The groups say the deserters were meticulously vetted for their anti-war stance.

Olga Prokopieva, the head of Russie-Libertes, said France’s decision to allow the group of army deserters into the country was “unprecedented” and urged other European countries to follow suit. “It has taken us a year of talks. We have tried so many things,” she told Agence France-Presse.

However, Prokopieva told VOA via email on October 29 that Russie-Libertes would no longer be commenting on or publicizing the case, an indication of the sensitivity of the asylum applications.

Get Lost, a Georgia-based organization that helps Russians flee their country, claims to have aided more than 38,000 people, including thousands of soldiers. It also helped Alexander and Irina, along with the eight other Russians allowed to enter France.

Many European nations will have security concerns, said Ian Bond of the Centre for European Reform.

“There will be some, maybe in eastern Europe, who will say Russians are always a security risk; we should not be encouraging this. There will be others, and I would be among them, who would say the more people that we can encourage to leave Russia, the more acute [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s shortage of manpower will be — not just for the armed forces, but also for the military industrial complex.” 

“I think the fact that Russia has brought some thousands of North Korean troops to the battlefield is an indication that the manpower shortage is really starting to bite. But certainly, you’ll have to scrutinize these people quite closely to make sure that you aren’t importing Russian special forces disguised as deserters,” Bond told VOA.

It’s not clear if France intends to allow more Russian deserters to enter the country and claim asylum. The French foreign ministry did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

Since fleeing Russia, deserter Alexander and Irina have created a YouTube channel aimed at other Russian soldiers.

“Maybe with the help of this YouTube channel, the soldiers who have already taken this step, who have left their unit, Russia, the conflict zone, will be able to pass on these ideas to those who are still there, who are at a crossroads, who decide to flee or stay,” Irina said.

Sergei, another of the Russian deserters permitted to enter France, said Russian soldiers always have a choice.

“There is always a possibility to lay down your arms, not to kill other people and to end your participation in this war,” the 27-year-old told AFP.  
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TBILISI, Georgia — For some Georgians who supported the ruling Georgian Dream party in Saturday’s disputed parliamentary election, the aspiration to go West toward the European Union had to be balanced by the brutal reality of the need to keep the peace with Russia.

The opposition and foreign observers had cast the election as a watershed moment that would decide if Georgia moves closer to Europe or leans back towards Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

The ruling party, which is seen as loyal to its billionaire founder Bidzina Ivanishvili, says it wants to one day join the EU but that it must also avoid confrontation with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia that could leave the South Caucasus republic devastated like Ukraine.

“We’ve had peace these 12 years in Georgia,” said Sergo, a resident of the capital Tbilisi who has voted for Georgian Dream in every election since the party rose to power in 2012.

Georgian Dream clinched 54% of the vote on Saturday, the electoral commission said, while opposition parties and the president claimed the election had been stolen and the West called for investigations into reports of voting irregularities.

Observer groups, including the 57-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said alleged violations, including ballot-stuffing, bribery, voter intimidation and violence, could have affected the election’s outcome.

The EU and the United States said there was not a level playing field but stopped short of saying the result was stolen by Georgian Dream. Russia accused the West of meddling.

Beyond the rhetoric, though, the result poses a challenge to Tbilisi’s ambitions to join the European Union, which polls show the overwhelming majority of Georgians support.

Brussels has effectively frozen Georgia’s EU accession application over concerns of democratic backsliding under Georgian Dream and what it casts is its pro-Russian rhetoric.

Georgian Dream backers say that while they want to join Europe, they don’t want to sacrifice Georgia’s traditional values of family and church.

EU aspirations?

For them, Georgian Dream’s party slogan, “Only with peace, dignity, and prosperity to Europe,” appeals.

Official results, which the opposition says are fraudulent, showed the party securing huge margins of up to 90% in rural areas, even as it underperformed in Tbilisi and other cities.

Ghia Abashidze, a political analyst close to Georgian Dream, attributed the party’s showing to its emphasis on keeping the peace and preserving traditional values.

The Georgian parliament passed a law this year curbing LGBT rights and Pride events have been attacked by violent mobs in years past. The topic remains sensitive in conservative Georgia, which is devoutly Orthodox Christian.

Abashidze said that Georgian Dream was still committed to EU integration, but found more to like in some of the bloc’s Eastern European members such as Hungary, whose premier Viktor Orban flew to Tbilisi on Monday and hailed the election as free.

He said Orban’s Hungary, which has also been accused of democratic backsliding, shared the Georgian ruling party’s core values of “family, traditions, statehood, sovereignty, peace.”

In Isani, a working-class Tbilisi neighborhood and one of the few in the capital where Georgian Dream received more votes than the four main opposition parties combined, Sergo, who did not want to give his last name, echoed the sentiment.

“We want to go to the European Union with our customs, our traditions, our mentality,” the 56-year-old said, passing freshly-baked bread to customers from his shop window. He said he believed LGBT people should receive medical treatment and go to church to become “normal people.”

Russia or EU?

By contrast, opposition supporters say the ruling party’s positions on foreign policy and social issues are incompatible with Europe’s, and keeping the peace with Russia depends on Georgia aligning with the West.

At a thousands-strong protest against the election results on Monday, Salome Gasviani said the opposition was fighting to preserve Georgia’s freedom and independence.

“We’re here to say out loud that Georgia is a very European country and our future is in the EU, in the West,” she said.

Russia, which ruled Georgia for about 200 years, won a brief war against the country in 2008, and memories of Russian tanks rolling towards Tbilisi are still fresh for many.

During the campaign, Georgian Dream played on fears of war, with posters showing devastated Ukrainian cities beside picturesque Georgian ones to illustrate the threat.

“The main thing is that we don’t have a war,” 69-year-old Otar Shaverdashvili, another Isani resident, said before the vote. “I remember the last war very well. No one wants another one.”

Kornely Kakachia, head of Georgian Institute of Politics think tank, said the opposition had struggled to allay fears that a change of government could risk Georgia being sucked into the Ukraine war.

“If someone asks you to choose between war and the European Union and you have this kind of choice, then of course people will choose the status quo,” he said.
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Officials in Ukraine’s capital said Wednesday a Russian drone attack left at least nine people injured.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram an 11-year-old girl was among those hurt when debris from a downed drone hit an apartment building.

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said air defenses destroyed Russian drones that attacked the city from multiple directions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed 23 Ukrainian drones deployed in overnight attacks.

The intercepts took place over the Rostov, Kursk, Smolensk, Oryol, Bryansk and Belgorod regions, the ministry said.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram there was damage to electrical lines, while officials in Kursk reported a fire at an administrative building.

North Korea

The Pentagon said Tuesday a “small number” of North Korean troops have deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, where they are likely to be used in combat against Ukrainian troops.

“[There are] indications that there’s already a small number that are actually in the Kursk Oblast, with a couple thousand more that are either almost there or due to arrive imminently,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters.

“We remain concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Kursk,” he added.

On Monday, the U.S. Department of Defense said that North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to train in Russia, more than tripling the previous estimate, and warned that those forces would likely augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks.

The Pentagon has “no information” to corroborate reports that North Korean troops are also inside Ukraine, according to Ryder.

Asked by VOA whether Ukraine should strike back against North Korean forces, President Joe Biden replied, “If they cross into Ukraine, yes.” 

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that military cooperation between North Korea and Russia “poses a significant security threat to the international community.” 

The comments at a Cabinet meeting in Seoul followed Yoon saying Monday that the deployment of North Korean troops to the battlefield in Ukraine could happen “more quickly than anticipated,” according to South Korean intelligence assessments.

NATO on Monday had confirmed that 3,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia with some deployed to Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian troops invaded the border region in a surprise attack in August and still hold territory there. 

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the deployment of North Korean troops was a sign of “growing desperation” on the part of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Rutte added that more than 600,000 Russian forces have been killed or wounded since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

The Pentagon did not provide further details on the type of troops or equipment that North Korea had sent with them. When pressed by VOA Monday on what capabilities these troops could bring, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh said, “It’s additional bodies on the battlefield.” 

“If we see DPRK troops moving in and towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” she warned. 

Russia and North Korea have boosted their political and military alliance since Moscow’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin initially dismissed reports about a North Korean troop deployment as “fake news,” but Putin last week did not deny that North Korean troops were currently in Russia, adding that it was up to Moscow to decide how to deploy them as part of a mutual defense security pact that he signed with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in June. 

At odds with Putin’s comments, a North Korean representative to the United Nations in New York last week characterized the reports of Pyongyang’s deployment of troops in Russia as “groundless rumors.” 

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will host his South Korean counterpart, Kim Yong-Hyun, on Wednesday at the Pentagon, where the two are expected to discuss the North Korean troops who are now in Russia. 

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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The outcome of the U.S. election and the possible changes in Washington’s foreign policy are of special significance to the 3 million American expatriates eligible to vote in next week’s U.S. presidential elections. In few places is that outcome more tangible than in Ukraine, where a few thousand Americans have, for various reasons, chosen to live after Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion. Lesia Bakalets speaks to several expatriates in Ukraine and sends this report from Kyiv.
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Every October, events are held worldwide to mark a Day of Remembrance for the victims of purges in the former Soviet Union. With growing restrictions on memorial ceremonies in Russia, opposition activists see events abroad as more crucial than ever. Natasha Mozgovaya has the story from Seattle.
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Madrid — Torrential rains caused by a cold front moving across southeastern Spain flooded roads and towns on Tuesday, prompting authorities in the worst-hit areas to advise citizens to stay at home and avoid all non-essential travel. 

Spain’s state weather agency AEMET declared a red alert in the eastern Valencia region and the second-highest level of alert in parts of Andalusia in the south, where a train derailed due to the heavy rainfall, although no one was injured. 

Footage showed firefighters rescuing trapped drivers amid heavy rain in the Valencian town of Alzira and flooded streets with stuck cars. 

Scientists say extreme weather events are becoming more frequent due to climate change. Meteorologists believe the warming of the Mediterranean, which increases water evaporation, plays a key role in making torrential rains more severe. 

AEMET expected Valencia to take the brunt of the storm, with forecasts of more than 90 mm of rain in less than one hour, or 180 mm in under 12 hours. 

Schools, courthouses and other essential services were suspended in Carlet and some other nearby towns in the Valencia region. 

Local emergency services requested the help of UME, a military unit specialized in rescue operations, in the area of Utiel-Requena, where farmers’ association ASAJA said the storm was causing significant damage to crops. 

The storm first struck Andalusia. In El Ejido, a Mediterranean city known for its sprawling greenhouses, a hailstorm broke hundreds of car windscreens, flooded the streets and damaged the mostly plastic greenhouse infrastructure. 

In Alora, also in Andalusia, the Guadalorce river overflowed and 14 people there had to be rescued by firefighters, authorities said. Alora topped AEMET’s ranking on Tuesday with 160 mm of rainfall.
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BERLIN — Thousands of German workers launched nationwide strikes to press for higher wages on Tuesday, compounding problems for companies worried about staying globally competitive as high costs, weak exports and foreign rivals chip away at their strengths. 

The strikes by unionized workers in the nearly 4-million strong electrical engineering and metal industries hit companies such as Porsche, BMW and Mercedes. 

Also this week, car giant Volkswagen could announce plans to shut three plants on home soil for the first time in its 87-year history, as well as mass layoffs and 10% wage cuts for workers who keep their jobs. 

A worsening business outlook in Europe’s largest economy has piled pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s rickety coalition government, which could be on the verge of collapse ahead of federal elections next year as policy cracks widen. 

Scholz hosted a meeting with business leaders on Tuesday, including Volkswagen boss Oliver Blume, to discuss strategies for bolstering Germany’s industrial sector. 

The three-hour closed-door meeting in Berlin was aimed at exploring policy measures to drive growth, protect industrial jobs, and reinforce Germany’s position as a global industrial hub, government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said in a statement. 

The talks mark the beginning of a broader initiative by the German government, with follow-up discussions planned for Nov. 15, Hebestreit added. 

In a sign of government dysfunction, his finance minister has also announced a separate summit on the same day. 

Germany has a long history of so-called “warning strikes” during wage negotiations, but they come at a time of employers’ deepening concerns about the future. A leading business group said a survey of companies pointed to Germany experiencing another year of economic contraction in 2024 and no prospect of growth next year. 

“We are not just dealing with a cyclical, but a stubborn structural crisis in Germany,” said Martin Wansleben, managing director of the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry that conducted the survey. 

“We are greatly concerned about how much Germany is becoming an economic burden for Europe and can no longer fulfill its role as an economic workhorse,” he said. 

A separate survey by the VDA auto industry association suggested the transformation of the German car industry could lead to 186,000 job losses by 2035, of which roughly a quarter have already occurred. 

“Europe — especially Germany — is losing more and more international competitiveness,” said the VDA report, which also stated that German companies paid up to three times more for electricity than their U.S. or Chinese rivals, while facing higher taxes and increasing bureaucratic burdens. 

Workers want share 

The International Monetary Fund joined those calling for reforms in Germany, suggesting the government ditch a constitutionally enshrined borrowing cap known as the debt brake so it can boost investment.  

While the debt brake is supported by Finance Minister Christian Lindner, he is at odds with Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who has called for a multibillion-euro fund to stimulate growth. 

“The economic policy debate is where it belongs: right at the top of the agenda,” Lindner said on X. “We have no time to lose.” 

The meetings with Lindner and Scholz have prompted companies and industry associations to air their gripes. The chemicals lobby VCI lamented “poor framework conditions” and high energy costs faced by its members, and called on Scholz to make “groundbreaking decisions” to unleash competitiveness. 

Reinhold von Eben-Worlee, from the association of family-run companies, compared the plight of Germany’s Mittelstand firms to a marathon runner weighed down by a heavy rucksack of high taxes and social security contributions, and red tape. 

Tuesday’s strikes were orchestrated by the powerful IG Metall union, which also staged a walkout during the night shift at Volkswagen’s plant in the city of Osnabrueck, where workers worry the site may be shutting down. 

Approximately 71,000 workers participated in Tuesday’s strike, impacting around 370 companies across Germany, according to a spokesperson for IG Metall. 
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Berlin — Germany has recalled its ambassador to Iran over the reported execution of German-Iranian national Jamshid Sharmahd and summoned the Iranian charge d’affaires to voice Berlin’s protest against the killing, the German foreign office said on Tuesday.

“We have sent our strongest protest against the actions of the Iranian regime & reserve the right to take further action,” the foreign ministry said in a post on X.

Germany’s ambassador in Tehran demarched to the Iranian foreign minister and protested in the strongest possible terms the murder of Jamshid Sharmahd, the post said, adding that German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock subsequently recalled the ambassador to Berlin for consultations.

Iran executed Iranian-German national Jamshid Sharmahd after he was convicted of carrying out terrorist attacks, Iranian state media said on Monday.

Sharmahd, who also holds U.S. residency, was sentenced to death in 2023 on charges of “corruption on earth,” a capital offence under Iran’s Islamic laws.

He was accused by Iran of heading a pro-monarchist group accused of a deadly 2008 bombing and planning other attacks in the country.

His daughter Gazelle Sharmahd, also on X, demanded proof for his execution and called for the immediate return of her father.

 
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London — Adidas has reached an out-of-court settlement with rapper Ye to end all legal proceedings between them, the sportswear brand said on Tuesday, adding that no money changed hands in the agreement.

Adidas and Ye had been embroiled in multiple lawsuits for the past two years, since the German company ended a partnership with the rapper previously known as Kanye West over antisemitic comments he made.

“There isn’t any more open issues, and there is no… money going either way, and we both move on,” CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters on a conference call, declining to give further details of the deal.

“There were tensions on many issues, and… when you put the claims on the right side and you put the claims on the left side, both parties said we don’t need to fight anymore and withdrew all the claims,” Gulden added.

 
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