War in Ukraine: South Korea to “increase the scale” of its aid to kyiv

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol promised on Saturday July 15 to “increase the scale” of his humanitarian aid and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine, after a summit with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev.

Seoul “will increase the scale of support given last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bulletproof vests,” Yoon Suk Yeol said. His country’s humanitarian aid to Ukraine will increase to $150 million in 2023 from $100 million in 2022, he added.

South Korea, the world’s ninth-largest arms exporter, has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine and has also sold tanks and howitzers to Poland, a key Kyiv ally against Russian forces. However, the Asian country has a long-standing policy of not supplying arms to regions in conflict, despite repeated pleas from the United States, European allies and Ukraine itself for more aid. important. South Korea, which remains technically at war with nuclear-armed North Korea, produces large volumes of NATO-compatible weapons, including tanks, howitzers and ammunition highly sought after shells.

“Ukraine today reminds me of South Korea of ​​old,” said Yoon Suk Yeol, hailing the international aid that had enabled his country to “win a miraculous victory” over the North and become the one of the world’s leading economies.

“Today, during this first visit of the President of the Republic of Korea to Ukraine in the history of our relations, we talked about everything that is important for people to lead a normal and safe life,” said Volodymyr Zelensky, adding: “Thank you for these meaningful talks. Thank you for your strong support.”

Before his meeting with the Ukrainian president, Yoon Suk Yeol went to the town of Boutcha, the scene of a massacre of civilians blamed on the Russian army. “The president visited the site of the Boutcha massacre, near the capital Kiev, as well as the city of Irpin, where the missile attacks were concentrated on civilian residential areas,” said the South Korean presidency.

Putin: ‘main’ goal of Ukrainian grain deal not ‘realized’

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that the main objective of the Ukrainian grain agreement, which expires on July 17, had not been achieved, during a phone call with his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa.

“Vladimir Putin stressed that the obligations set out in the Russia-UN memorandum on the removal of obstacles for the export of Russian food products and fertilizers are still not fulfilled,” the Kremlin said.

“The main objective of the agreement, the delivery of cereals to countries in need, particularly on the African continent, is not achieved”, continues the Russian presidency in a press release reporting this conversation between Vladimir Putin and Cyril Ramaphosa. The South African presidency confirmed that Cyril Ramaphosa had discussed the issue with Vladimir Putin, following a call between the South African president and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Moscow says it foiled attacks on two media personalities

The Russian security services (FSB) claimed this Saturday to have prevented the assassinations of Margarita Simonian, one of the main voices of the Kremlin media machine, and Ksenia Sobchak, a famous influencer critical of the offensive in Ukraine.

In a press release, the FSB claims to have arrested, the day before, in Moscow and in the Russian region of Ryazan, members of a neo-Nazi group called “Paragraph-88” and recruited by the Ukrainian services, against payment, to kill these two targets. AFP cannot confirm these allegations from an independent source.

“If it’s the truth, then thank you to all the departments involved. But if it’s not true, and the idea was just to put me in the same sentence with Simonian, then it’s just ordinary meanness,” reacted Ksenia Sobchak on her Telegram account.

494 dead Ukrainian children dead since the beginning of the war

According to a count released this Saturday by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine on Telegram, 494 children have been killed and 1,552 injured since the beginning of the war. These figures are continuously rising due to census work in combat zones.

According to the document, the administrative regions that recorded the highest number of injured children are: Donetsk oblast (472), Kharkiv oblast (297), Kiev oblast (129), Kherson (116), Zaporizhia Oblast (97), Mykolaiv Oblast (89), Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (83), Chernihiv Oblast (71) and Luhansk Oblast (67) .

Suspected Russian spy extradited to US

A suspected Russian intelligence agent, extradited from Estonia to the United States, was remanded to US custody on Friday. The man’s name is Vadim Konoshchenok. He is accused by American justice of having played a central role in a group that illegally supplied Russia with sensitive electronic components and ammunition using front companies. And more specifically to have “provided advanced American technologies and ammunition to Russia, intended for its illegal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, detailed Andrew Adams, the director of the KleptoCapture team, which depends on the ministry. of Justice.

Vadim Konoshchenok was arrested in 2022 by Estonian authorities at the request of the United States after attempting to cross the Estonian-Russian border in possession of American semiconductors and ammunition, according to the indictment. According to US authorities, more than 450 kilos of ammunition were seized in connection with this case. The extradition of Vadim Konoshchenok to the United States comes at a time when Washington is seeking to negotiate the release of several American citizens detained in Russia, including Paul Whelan, a former non-commissioned officer in the Marine Corps, and journalist Evan Gershkovich, both accused of ‘spying. Washington rejects these charges and is working to negotiate their release. “I’m serious about a prisoner swap,” Joe Biden said Thursday from Finland.