[Guns N' Coffee]

North Korea and Russia meet over arms deal, U.S. intel reveals

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/0...-deal-00113471



New U.S. intelligence shows North Korea and Russia are “actively advancing” high-level talks for additional weapons and other materials to assist Moscow’s brutal war in Ukraine, the Biden administration disclosed on Wednesday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently traveled to North Korea to try to secure additional artillery ammunition, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters. Since that visit, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un have exchanged letters pledging to increase their cooperation.

Also after Shoigu’s visit, another group of Russian officials traveled to Pyongyang for follow-up discussions about potential arms deals between the two nations, Kirby said. Under the potential agreements, North Korea would ship Russia “significant quantities and multiple types” of weapons for use in Ukraine, he said.


The potential deals also include the provision of raw materials that could help boost Russia’s military manufacturing capability, Kirby said.

“Any arms deal between the DPRK and Russia would directly violate a number of U.N. Security Council resolutions,” Kirby said, referring to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the country’s official name. “We’re continuing to monitor this situation closely. And we urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia.”

The alleged arms talks come as Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine drags on with no end in sight. A Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed to make major breakthroughs, despite ample military support from the West. Both Russia and Ukraine are burning through ammunition and seeking any edge they can in a bid to gain a permanent upper hand.

The Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kirby declined to describe how the United States had obtained the information, citing the importance of protecting sources and methods used. Still, it was the latest example of the Biden administration publicly disclosing intelligence in a bid to stay ahead of Moscow as it has pursued its war on Ukraine.

Kirby said the fact that Putin was approaching a country like North Korea, one of the most isolated on the planet, was a sign of Putin’s desperation, even as he acknowledged it was not clear how long Russia would continue to wage war.

“It’s hard to look at this and not see anything but weakness,” Kirby said.

North Korea has previously sent artillery to Russia through third countries in the Middle East and North Africa, violating U.N. sanctions, U.S. officials said. Russia has also turned to Tehran for weapons, using Iranian drones to attack Ukraine’s electrical grid and other civilian infrastructure.

The news came as South Korea’s military announced that Pyongyang had launched a ballistic missile on Wednesday. It appears the launch was a reaction to the U.S. military’s annual drills with Seoul.

[Roosta]

Sure is a sign of Weakness !

[WhiskeyOutpost]

Glad to see one of my favorites systematically pick apart former Colonel Douglas MacGregor's insane statements regarding the Ukraine war. It gets worse as it goes on.

Any of these arguments seem familiar?

[Guns N' Coffee]

Good news all around today!

[Guns N' Coffee]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyOutpost ↗

Glad to see one of my favorites systematically pick apart former Colonel Douglas MacGregor's insane statements regarding the Ukraine war. It gets worse as it goes on.

Any of these arguments seem familiar?

Col. MacGregor seems so proud of his boys the Russians, he is practically beaming

[WonderMomma]

"" South ."
Ukrainian units are successful and are entrenched in the Novodanilivka-Novoprokopivka and Mala Tokmachka-Verbove directions of the Zaporizhia region," — General Staff"



Screenshot from a Russian source, Alex Parker Returns.
"Again the podors have anxiety"



NO MEDIA:
"Some of the Ukrainian pilots and engineers who are currently undergoing training on F-16 fighters in Denmark have already successfully completed preparatory activities and can begin flight training.

Zaluzhnyi's telephone conversation with the Chief of Defense Staff of the Kingdom of Denmark, General Flemming Lentfer."

[kellyhound]

Over 1,000 UAVs and 30 Ukrainian-made robotic systems are being sent to the front", Minister of Digitalization told.
These are: 25 combat turrets with remote control "Shablya", 5 ground platforms "Lynx", 900 FPV drones and more than 100 Mavic and Matrice drones.

[Roosta]

Originally Posted by WonderMomma ↗

NO MEDIA:
"Some of the Ukrainian pilots and engineers who are currently undergoing training on F-16 fighters in Denmark have already successfully completed preparatory activities and can begin flight training.

Zaluzhnyi's telephone conversation with the Chief of Defense Staff of the Kingdom of Denmark, General Flemming Lentfer."

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

Over 1,000 UAVs and 30 Ukrainian-made robotic systems are being sent to the front", Minister of Digitalization told.
These are: 25 combat turrets with remote control "Shablya", 5 ground platforms "Lynx", 900 FPV drones and more than 100 Mavic and Matrice drones.

Won't be long now b4 full on "Terminators" are in the field.

[WonderMomma]

NO MEDIA

"Mr. Keane, a retired four-star general, ex-deputy chief of staff of the army, chairman of the Institute for the Study of War, wrote for the WSJ his opinion on the Western skepticism about the situation on the Ukrainian front.

———

The American military expresses its disappointment with the way Ukraine is conducting its counteroffensive. This is alarming. American officers appear to have unrealistic expectations of what a single counteroffensive operation can achieve. The US should be focused on helping Ukraine wage war the way it wants to wage war, not on the sidelines.

The American military leadership wants Ukraine to concentrate Western-equipped and trained forces for a counteroffensive concentrated in one area, where the goal would be to quickly break through the Russian lines and capture the city of Melitopol. US officials are reportedly annoyed that Ukraine has maintained large forces in the east, particularly in the Bakhmut area, and that Ukraine is conducting multiple offensives in Zaporizhia Oblast itself rather than focusing on just one.

No one in the U.S. military today has designed large-scale mechanized operations against a serious and combat-capable enemy that employs complex defenses. The last time was the Metz campaign in France in 1944, led by General George S. Patton. A massive mass attack on Melitopol, which some are calling for, is the most obvious, because it is the shortest route to the sea. This approach seems attractive and justified from a military point of view.

The problem is that the Russians thought the same way. Therefore, they deployed the most combat-ready units here. They dug deep, long lines of trenches and covered the ground with mines. Their best pilots, operating the most modern attack helicopters, are in the area, ready for another Ukrainian attack. They fortified Melitopol and Tokmak for a year. Therefore, this shortest road to the sea is also the best prepared part of the Russian defense.

The Ukrainians have actually made this route a priority and have recently achieved important gains. But they also attacked further east in the Zaporozhye region and achieved success there. The effort that seems to burden American officials the most is Ukraine's attempt to retake the city of Bakhmut. American military experts want the Ukrainians to hold back on all other fronts and focus on a single strike towards Melitopol.

Such advice is military negligence. Well-designed mechanized campaigns almost always move along multiple axes rather than just one. This is exactly what the American-led coalitions did against Iraq in 1991 and 2003. This is how the Americans, Germans and the Soviet Union fought in the Second World War. The reason is simple: advancing along one axis allows the defender to focus entirely on stopping that advance. In that case, the Russians would almost certainly have moved forces from other parts of the theater as quickly as they could to stop the Ukrainian advance on Melitopol.

The Russians redeployed troops to Zaporozhye. They did not send more reinforcements, in part because Ukrainian attacks pinned them down along the line. The Ukrainian "counteroffensive" in the Bakhmut area forced the Russians to move several Russian airborne divisions and separate brigades here to hold the line. These units fought in the Luhansk and Kharkiv regions and were ready to be reinforced in the Melitopol direction.

Now they are being pushed around Bakhmut, because the Ukrainians continue to put pressure on the city, which the Russians are not ready to lose. The Ukrainian attack further east in Zaporozhye also pressed Russian forces into that sector, which might otherwise have shifted west. Similar, smaller-scale Ukrainian attacks elsewhere along the line had the same effect. Ukrainian pressure along the line deprived the Russians of almost any significant reserve with which to counter a major Ukrainian breakthrough."


VIDEO:
"Video of tests of cardboard kamikaze drones that attacked the airfield in Kursk, Russia, on the night of August 27.

16 kamikaze drones worked against four SU-30 aircraft and one MIG-29, which were based at this airfield. The S-300 complex's radars and two "Pantsyri" are also among the targets hit.

ℹ️ Interesting method of damage. The drone explodes in the sky, scattering hundreds of fragments on the ground."

[kellyhound]

"Several sources in Minsk confirmed that President Lukashenka had ordered an investigation into the reasons for the mass drone overflight of Pskov through the territory of Belarus. The KGB of Belarus sent a report to the president of Belarus, which says that the country's air defense did not react to the drone overflight, while the duty group informed the command and the leadership of the Ministry of Defense, but there was no order to shoot down.

An official who previously worked in Lukashenka's entourage believes that Lukashenka gave an order not to interfere in the conflict and explained to Moscow that the drones could be launched by saboteurs and guerrillas who were being held back by the Belarusian army."