Syria’s Assad blames ‘terrorism’ for regime collapse in first statement since defeat
(LONDON) — Former Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday made his first official statement since being topped by a rebel offensive and fleeing the country for Russia, declaring that he left Syria after a Russian request to do so.
“My departure from Syria was neither planned nor did it occur in the final hours of the battles,” Assad said in a statement posted to the presidency’s official Telegram channel.
“As terrorist forces infiltrated Damascus, I moved to Latakia in coordination with our Russian allies to oversee combat operations,” Assad said.
“Upon arrival at the Khmeimim air base that morning, it became clear that our forces had completely withdrawn from all battle lines and that the last army positions had fallen,” the statement continued.
“As the field situation in the area continued to deteriorate, the Russian military base itself came under intensified attack by drone strikes. With no viable means of leaving the base, Moscow requested that the base’s command arrange an immediate evacuation to Russia.”
“This took place a day after the fall of Damascus, following the collapse of the final military positions and the resulting paralysis of all state institutions,” Assad said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(SEOUL) — Over 12,000 North Korean troops are estimated to be fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, deputy U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Dorothy Camille Shea told the United Nations Security Council last week.
Of those dispatched to the region, an estimated 300 North Korean soldiers in Russia have died and over 2,700 have been wounded, according to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service’s closed briefing to the National Assembly on Monday.
North Korean defectors who finished their almost decade-long military service in their 20’s have shared their mixed sentiments and analysis with ABC News.
“So unfortunate, that’s all I can say,” North Korean defector Lee Cheol-eun said with a grimace after watching footage of North Korean soldiers fighting in Kursk, Russia, against the Ukrainian forces.
The 37-year-old served in the Korea People’s Army security department until he escaped the regime in 2016, meaning he knows better than anyone about having to follow orders in a system that one does not believe in.
“They do not know why they have to bleed and lose lives on that battlefield, I feel empty watching them,” Lee said.
“The soldiers dispatched to Russia must be the ones who are best trained about modern warfare and should have received the basic adaptation training upon arrival. The fact that they’ve been pushed into a situation where they have no choice but to die breaks my heart,” Defector Jang Seyul, who served in the North Korean People’s Army’s intelligence agency that focuses on cyber warfare simulations, told ABC News.
The North Korean soldiers on the Kursk frontlines are the infamous “Storm Corps,” according to South Korea’s National Intelligence.
North Korea is estimated to be training at least 40,000 to as many as 80,000 Storm Corps soldiers who spend 13 years serving in the military and cut off from the outside world.
Jang recalled how dominant they were during joint battle drills.
“People would refer to them as murder weapons. They received high-level training that the regular soldiers couldn’t imagine,” said Jang.
Jang says the Storm Corps were provided with slightly larger rations of food and that they are compensated better once they are discharged considering their longer tenure of service and harsh training.
The Storm Corps are not only prepared to be physically stronger but also highly indoctrinated, according to the retired Lieutenant General Chun In-bum of the South Korean Army, referring to them as “an elite force that is one grade above the average North Korean unit.”
However, in spite of their reputation, the Storm Corps soldiers in North Korea have been seen flailing helplessly under Ukrainian drone attacks, according to footage provided by Ukrainian forces.
Seoul’s intelligence service briefed lawmakers in a closed-door briefing on Monday, saying the main reason for mass casualties is due to the North Korean soldiers’ lack of understanding in modern warfare, such as drone target shots and charging without rear fire support.
General Chun In-bum said that it may be too early to determine if the North Korean soldiers were insufficiently trained, explaining that drone warfare is new to everyone on the frontlines.
“The North Koreans will be unaccustomed to the flatlands and the Ukrainian front, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not going to be adapting, especially if they are experiencing high casualties. It’s a great motivator when you see that your life is on the line,” Chun told ABC News.
Seoul speculates that North Korea may dispatch more troops in the near future. Chun believes the same.
“So even for just rotational purposes, I think there is a high probability that more soldiers will be deployed there. Whatever the situation is, the relationship between Putin and Kim Jong Un is going to solidify and, to a degree, I’m sure the Russian people are going to appreciate that the North Koreans are sending soldiers at a moment when they are in a very difficult situation,” General Chun said.
The dispatch of North Korean soldiers’ to Russia is still an open secret within the secluded regime which has limited access to news from the outside world. Defectors and experts on North Korea in Seoul having different opinions about how the North Korean public will react once they are aware.
General Chun assumes that for the family members of the deceased North Korean soldiers, the regime will compensate them with all the benefits possible in hopes they will come to appreciate their sons’ sacrifice for their country.
But Jang, on the other hand, sees the North Korean people as less loyal than the generation before them, suggesting the regime would have to put in greater effort into explaining the soldiers’ deaths.
“Average North Korean people are unaware of the dispatch. But people who secretly communicate with the outside world, and those who listen to the propaganda broadcasting signals sent from the South probably know what is going on,” Lee told ABC News. “I hope the survivors of the Russia dispatch will return home and inform others of the injustice of the North Korean system based on their experience abroad.”
(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that more 3,000 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been killed or wounded fighting for Moscow in Russia’s western Kursk region.
Zelenskyy posted to Telegram on Monday following a briefing by Kyiv’s top commander — Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi — on the ongoing battle in Kursk, underway since Ukrainian troops launched a surprise cross-border incursion there in August.
“There are risks of sending additional soldiers and military equipment to the Russian army from North Korea,” Zelenskyy said, vowing “tangible responses” to any such move. “According to preliminary data, the number of killed and wounded North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region already exceeds 3,000 people.”
Ukrainian special forces claimed on Monday to have inflicted more than 100 casualties among North Korean forces over three days of operations.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces branch claimed in a post to its official Telegram channel that 77 North Koreans were killed and 40 wounded in recent fighting.
On Sunday, the SSO posted photos of what it said were North Korean troops killed in Russia’s western Kursk region. The SSO also uploaded photos of purportedly fabricated Russian military identity cards. ABC News was not immediately able to independently verify the images.
“Russia is trying to hide the presence of military personnel from North Korea by issuing them with fake documents,” the SSO wrote.
It added that the documents “do not have all the seals, photographs, the patronymics are given in the Russian manner and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva,” the home region of Sergei Shoigu — formerly Russia’s defense minister and now the secretary of the Security Council.
The SSO said the signatures of the document owners were written in Korean, which it said “indicates the real origin of these soldiers.”
U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian officials have said there are currently up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers inside Russia, deployed there primarily to help push Kyiv’s forces out of positions taken in Kursk.
Ukrainian military sources told ABC News in November that North Koreans were expected to be among the 50,000 troops arrayed for a major counter-offensive in Kursk.
The deployment of troops marks a new milestone in North Korean support for Russia’s war, Pyongyang already having supplied Moscow with ammunition and weapons — including ballistic missiles — since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this month that Kyiv has “preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults — a significant number of them.”
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s Main Directorate of Intelligence, meanwhile, has reported “significant casualties” among North Korean troops deployed on the front lines alongside Russian units.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported on Monday that Seoul expects Pyongyang to send more troops and equipment to Russia.
“North Korea is preparing to rotate or increase the deployment of troops [in Russia], while currently supplying 240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery,” said South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, as quoted by Yonhap.
“There are also some signs of [the North] moving to manufacture and supply suicide drones,” the JCS said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a drone production and test facility in November. Then, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said Kim “underscored the need to build a serial production system as early as possible and go into full-scale mass production.”