CNN
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has for the first time acknowledged that North Korean soldiers took part in the fighting to recover Russian territory after Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region last year.
Two days after Moscow claimed to have recaptured all of Kursk, Putin said in a Monday statement: “Our Korean friends acted out of a sense of solidarity, justice and genuine comradeship.”
“We pay tribute to the heroism, high level of special training and self-sacrifice of the Korean soldiers who, shoulder to shoulder with Russian fighters, defended our homeland as their own,” he said.
Meanwhile, Russian, Ukrainian, the US and European governments continue to debate the terms for any ceasefire and more permanent deal to end the fighting.
On Sunday, however, Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius criticized the US proposals as “a capitulation.”
Ukraine knew it might have to sacrifice some territory to reach a lasting ceasefire deal “but they will certainly not go as far – or should not go as far – as the latest proposal by the American president,” Pistorius told German public broadcaster ARD on Sunday.
“Ukraine on its own could have got a year ago already what was included in that (Trump proposal), practically through a capitulation,” he said. “I cannot discern any added value.”
Ukrainian officials and Western intelligence reports have previously assessed that about 12,000 North Korean soldiers had been sent to fight in Russia.
In March, the South Korean military said a further 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been dispatched, as well as a “significant amount” of short-range ballistic missiles and hundreds of pieces of 170-millimeter self-propelled howitzers and 240-millimeter multiple rocket launchers.
North Korea had not publicly confirmed its contribution until Monday, when it said: “The operations for liberating the Kursk area to repel the adventurous invasion of the Russian Federation by the Ukrainian authorities were victoriously concluded,” according to state-run news agency KCNA.
Putin and Kim signed a landmark defense pact in Pyongyang last year, as the two autocratic nations ramped up ties to a “new level,” and pledged to provide immediate military assistance in the event the other is attacked.
Russia said at the weekend that its forces had recaptured Kursk, the border region where Ukraine launched a surprise offensive last year, though Kyiv insists its troops are fiercely battling to preserve their foothold in the territory.
The Ukrainian military poured precious resources into holding onto its territory there, with the view of using it as a key bargaining chip in any peace talks. The operation was also launched to relieve pressure from the embattled eastern front line.
The US plan to bring a permanent end to the fighting includes Washington’s recognition of Russia’s control over Crimea – the southern Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow illegally annexed more than a decade ago – and would grant Russia additional Ukrainian territory occupied since its full-scale invasion began in 2022, according to officials familiar with the plan.
Trump has been frustrated that his efforts to broker a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv after three years of war have so far fallen short, and the White House has since mounted an increasingly urgent push to strike a deal.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that the coming week would be “very critical” in determining whether the US can continue trying to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, suggesting President Donald Trump’s deadline for reaching a deal was swiftly approaching.
“We’re close, but we’re not close enough,” Rubio said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He added that Moscow and Kyiv were closer than ever to striking an agreement, but still tempered expectations for a breakthrough.
Rubio later spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about “consolidating” preconditions for negotiations, according to the foreign ministry in Moscow, which described the call as a “productive exchange of views.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Russia is ready to enter peace talks with Ukraine without preconditions.
Peskov told Russian reporters that what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation is continuing, and the United States is continuing its efforts to bring the process to a peaceful course.”
He said Putin “has repeatedly confirmed that the Russian side is ready to start the negotiation process with Ukraine without any preconditions.”
Peskov said there needed to be signals from Ukraine in order for direct negotiations to resume. “At least Kyiv should take some action in this regard. They have a legal ban on doing so. But so far we have not seen such actions.”
The last direct negotiations on ending the conflict were in the spring of 2022.
Putin said on April 21 he was open to the possibility of bilateral talks with Ukraine, as pressure from the US builds on both sides to agree to a quick peace deal.
Peskov said there were no immediate plans for a conversation between Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday conceded that Ukraine lacks the military might needed to retake Crimea by force but has long made it clear that making territorial concessions is a red line. Recognizing Crimea as Russian would also be illegal under Ukraine’s constitution.
Following Trump and Zelensky’s remarkable face-to-face meeting at the Vatican before Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday, the US president said they briefly discussed the issue of Crimea and that he believes Zelensky “wants to make a deal.”
Trump also criticized Putin in some of his strongest comments against the Russian leader to date.
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” Trump said Sunday as he returned to Washington to begin what aides say will be a critical week in determining the future of US-led efforts to broker an end to the war. “We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it and just go back to life.”
