Report calls for meeting Russian sabotage, hybrid attacks head-on; Ukraine claims North Korean soldiers killed in fighting; drones continue to spark curiosity, concern; and U.S. World War II veterans mark 80th anniversary of Battle of the Bulge.
1. Russia is stepping up a clandestine campaign of sabotage and hybrid attacks against the United States and its allies in Europe, as the Kremlin seeks widespread subversion of NATO assistance to Ukraine, according to a new report. About 150 cases of Kremlin-backed hybrid operations on NATO territory have occurred since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Helsinki Commission, an independent U.S. government agency, said in a report issued Friday. The pace has accelerated over the past two years and the Russian efforts go beyond “mere capers” of destabilization, the report said. “Russia is simultaneously executing a shadow war on NATO to destabilize, distress, and deter the transatlantic alliance from its staunch support of Ukrainian sovereignty,” the report said.
2. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency claimed Monday that around 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded in fighting against the Ukrainian army at the weekend in Russia’s Kursk border region. The North Korean casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a Ukrainian incursion, the agency, known by its acronym GUR, said in a public post on the Telegram messaging app. At least three North Korean servicemen went missing around another Kursk village, GUR said. It was not possible to independently verify the Ukrainian claims, which are the first reports of North Korean casualties in the almost 3-year war.
3. South Korea’s acting president made an introductory phone call to the commander of U.S. and U.N. forces on the peninsula to reaffirm the countries’ military alliance and express concern for potential moves by North Korea. Han Duck-soo, the country’s prime minister, assumed the presidential office Saturday following Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment by the National Assembly. Speaking by phone Sunday to U.S. Forces Korea commander Army Gen. Paul LaCamera, Han voiced concern that Pyongyang may capitalize on the South’s political turmoil to conduct ballistic missile launches and cyber-attacks, according to a news release from the Office of Government Policy.
4. As pressure mounts on federal officials to address ongoing concerns about possible drone sightings, East Coast residents, especially in New Jersey, remain on edge, with similar reports now emerging in Ohio, including a temporary airspace closure over a vital military base. Federal officials have so far downplayed many of the reported sightings, saying they are likely small airplanes or other manned aircraft. But they nonetheless expressed concern Sunday on sightings seen across at least six states – with Ohio potentially becoming the seventh to report unexplained drone activity. “I want to assure the American public that we are on it,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
5. Some of the last living American veterans of World War II on Saturday met with world leaders and many other admirers as they recounted how the Allies braved subfreezing temperatures to blunt the final Nazi offensive, which began 80 years ago on Monday. The Battle of the Bulge ceremonies in Belgium and Luxembourg capped a series of major remembrances in Europe this year, including the 80th anniversary of D-Day in June and other liberation milestones. The 17 veterans, who are either centenarians or in their late 90s now, were honored along with their fallen comrades in the bitterly fought Ardennes Campaign, where over 19,000 American troops lost their lives.
- Security