North Korea plans ‘satellite’ launch in next two weeks: Japan - Al Jazeera English

Pyongyang has said previously it completed work on its first spy satellite, but Tokyo says launch could be ballistic missile.

North Korea on Monday has notified neighbouring Japan that it plans to launch a satellite in coming days, which may be an attempt to put Pyongyang’s first military spy satellite into orbit.

Japan’s coast guard said the notice said the launch window was from May 31 and June 11 and that it could affect waters in the Yellow Sea, East China Sea and east of the Philippines’ Luzon Island.

North Korea has also undertaken a series of missile and weapons tests in recent months, including a new, solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

The Japanese prime minister’s office urged North Korea to refrain from the launch and said it would work closely with allies.

“We strongly urge North Korea to refrain from launching,” the prime minister’s office said on Twitter, adding it would cooperate “with relevant countries, such as the US and South Korea”.

To launch a satellite into space, North Korea would have to use long-range missile technology banned under United Nations’ Security Council resolutions. Its past launches of Earth observation satellites have been seen as disguised missile tests.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said the launch would violate UN resolutions and was a “threat to the peace and safety of Japan, the region and the international community.”

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada ordered Japan’s Self Defence Force to shoot down the satellite or debris, if any entered Japanese territory.

The government said it would do all it could to collect and analyse information from the launch.

North Korea announced it had completed work on its first spy satellite in April. Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un inspected a military satellite facility and gave the go-ahead for a “future action plan”. Such a launch would use long-range missile technology banned under United Nations Security Council resolutions.

Analysts say the spy satellite is part of nuclear-armed North Korea’s efforts to advance surveillance technology, including drones, and improve its ability to strike targets in the event of a conflict.

North Korean media previously criticised plans by South Korea, the United States and Japan to share real-time data on Pyongyang’s missile launches, describing the three as discussing “sinister measures” for tightening military cooperation.

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Russia targets Kyiv with largest drone attack of conflict, killing one - CNN

CNN  — 

Russia launched its largest drone attack of the conflict yet on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, leaving one person dead and sparking fires across the city early on Sunday.

In an update late Sunday, the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said Russia unleashed 59 Iranian Shahed drones – 58 of which were shot down. An earlier report from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense put the total at 54 drones, only two of which were not shot down.

Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a 41-year-old man died following the attacks, while falling drone debris at a gas station injured a 35-year-old woman.

Kyiv has been targeted several times this month but despite this fatalities are rare.

Falling drone debris also sparked fires in buildings across the capital, Klitschko said on Telegram.

Following the barrage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hailed Ukrainian air defense personnel as “heroes.”

“You look up to destroy enemy missiles, aircraft, helicopters, and drones. Every time you shoot down enemy drones and missiles, lives are saved,” the president said.

As well as trying to intimidate Kyiv residents, Moscow may be using the drone strikes to force Kyiv to expend valuable munitions shooting them down as well as get a sense of where air defenses are.

Shahed drones cost roughly 20 times less than a missile and so for Russia are a cheap way to inflict damage. The drones are manufactured in Iran and have frequently been deployed by Russian forces in Ukraine. Kyiv warned Tehran Sunday there would be “consequences” for supplying the aerial arsenal to Moscow.

Zelensky said in his daily address Sunday that the overnight attack ranked as “one of the largest attacks by Shahed drones.”

“Almost all of them were shot down. Unfortunately, there are hits in Zhytomyr region,” he added, referring to a northern region bordering Kyiv.

It was not immediately clear if Zelensky had not received updated statistics from his military at the time he spoke, or if he was referring to an additional Russian attack when he reported multiple hits in Zhytomyr.

Zelensky said the “most powerful” drone attack was directed against the Kyiv region, as Ukraine’s capital marked Kyiv Day, the anniversary of the city’s official founding 1,541 years ago.

“Thirty-six drones were shot down within the city of Kyiv and the region. This is how Russia celebrates the day of our ancient Kyiv,” he said.

A handout image shows the aftermath of falling debris at a building in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 28.

Kyiv City Military Administration/Handout via Reuters

The attacks come amid rumors of an imminent Ukrainian counteroffensive aimed at recapturing Russia-controlled territory.

Ukraine’s top general hinted the campaign could come soon, saying in a video “the time has come to take back what is ours.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russian forces shelled the city of Nikopol with heavy artillery, said Serhii Lysak, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region’s military administration.

“The enemy fired again on the civilian population with heavy artillery. The aggressor shelled Nikopol twice during the night, damaging six private houses and two outbuildings,” Lysak wrote in a Telegram post.

A gas and main power line were damaged in the attack, but no casualties were reported, according to Lysak.

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Turkey Votes in Runoff After Erdogan Takes First-Round Lead - The Wall Street Journal

By Jared Malsin and Elvan Kivilcim

Updated May 28, 2023 7:13 am ET

ISTANBUL—Millions of people are heading to the polls on Sunday in a presidential runoff election that could cement President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s grip on power and his country’s influence in the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and NATO.

Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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Ukraine war: Kyiv hit by new massive Russian drone attack - mayor - BBC

Reuters

By Jaroslav Lukiv

BBC News

Russia has carried out a new massive overnight drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, killing at least one person, local officials have said.

Kyiv's mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said a man died when drone wreckage fell near a petrol station. A woman was injured.

Overall, Russia launched a record 54 so-called kamikaze drones on Ukrainian targets, 52 of which were shot down, Ukraine's Air Force reported.

In Kyiv alone, more than 40 drones were downed, officials said.

This information has not been independently verified.

Russia - which launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022 - has in recent weeks stepped up its attacks on Kyiv, seeking to overwhelm the capital's defences.

Earlier on Sunday, air raid alerts were activated in 12 regions of Ukraine, from Volyn in the north-west to Dnipropetrovsk in the south-east.

In a post on social media, Mr Klitschko urged Kyiv residents to "stay in shelters", warning of waves of drone attacks and a "difficult" night ahead.

He said at least two high-rising buildings in different districts of the capital were on fire after being hit by falling drone fragments.

Kyiv officials also reported that warehouses in the southern Holosiyivsky district were ablaze.

Some officials accused Russia of targeting Kyiv deliberately as residents prepared to celebrate Kyiv Day - the anniversary of the city's foundation 1500 years ago and a popular holiday before the war.

There were also reports of explosions in the city of Zhytomyr, west of Kyiv.

The air alert was later lifted in the capital and across the country.

In its recent attacks, Russia has been using so-called kamikaze drones as well as a range of cruise and ballistic missiles.

The attacks come ahead of a widely expected Ukrainian counter-offensive.

On Saturday, one of Ukraine's most senior security officials told the BBC the country was ready to launch such an operation.

Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the powerful National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said an assault to retake territory from President Vladimir Putin's occupying forces could begin "tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or in a week".

• 'We’re ready to begin counter-offensive' - Ukraine

Ukraine has been planning a counter-offensive for months. But it has wanted as much time as possible to train troops and to receive military equipment from Western allies.

In the meantime, Russian forces have been preparing their defences in the seized regions of south-eastern Ukraine.

Speaking to the BBC, Andrei Kelin, Russia's ambassador to the UK, said his country had "enormous resources" and it was yet to "act very seriously".

Warning that supplies of weapons to Ukraine risk escalating the war to levels not seen so far, he added: "Sooner or later, of course, this escalation may get a new dimension which we do not need and we do not want."

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Related Topics

• Russia-Ukraine war
• Kyiv
• Russia
• Drones
• Ukraine

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Erdogan positioned to extend rule in Turkey runoff election - Reuters.com

• Summary

• Erdogan has the edge after winning first round
• Challenger Kilicdaroglu lagged him by nearly five points
• Erdogan's strong showing defied polls, hit opposition mood
• Nationalist vote split by different endorsements
• Erdogan eyes third decade of rule, critics fear 'one man regime'

ANKARA, May 28 (Reuters) - Turks vote on Sunday in a presidential runoff that could see Tayyip Erdogan extend his rule into a third decade and intensify Turkey's increasingly authoritarian path, muscular foreign policy and unorthodox economic governance.

Erdogan, 69, defied opinion polls and came out comfortably ahead with an almost five-point lead over his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu in the first round on May 14. But he fell just short of the 50% needed to avoid a runoff, in a race with profound consequences for Turkey itself and global geopolitics.

His unexpectedly strong showing amid a deep cost of living crisis, and a win in parliamentary elections for a coalition of his conservative Islamist-rooted AK Party (AKP), the nationalist MHP and others, buoyed the veteran campaigner who says a vote for him is a vote for stability.

Kilicdaroglu, 74, is the candidate of a six-party opposition alliance, and leads the Republican People's Party (CHP) created by Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. His camp has struggled to regain momentum after the shock of trailing Erdogan in the first round.

The election will decide not only who leads Turkey, a NATO-member country of 85 million, but also how it is governed, where its economy is headed after its currency plunged to one tenth of its value against the dollar in a decade, and the shape of its foreign policy, which has seen Turkey irk the West by cultivating ties with Russia and Gulf states.

The initial election showed larger-than-expected support for nationalism - a powerful force in Turkish politics which has been hardened by years of hostilities with Kurdish militants, an attempted coup in 2016 and the influx of millions of refugees from Syria since war began there in 2011.

Turkey is the world's largest host of refugees, with some 5 million migrants, of whom 3.3 million are Syrians, according to Interior Ministry data.

Third-place presidential candidate and hardline nationalist Sinan Ogan said he endorsed Erdogan based on a principle of "non-stop struggle (against) terrorism", referring to pro-Kurdish groups. He achieved 5.17% of the vote.

Another nationalist, Umit Ozdag, leader of the anti-immigrant Victory Party (ZP), announced a deal declaring ZP's support for Kilicdaroglu, after he said he would repatriate immigrants. The ZP won 2.2% of votes in this month's parliamentary election.

A closely-watched survey by pollster Konda for the runoff put support for Erdogan on 52.7% and Kilicdaroglu on 47.3% after distributing undecided voters. The survey was carried out on May 20-21, before Ogan and Ozdag revealed their endorsements.

Another key is how Turkey's Kurds, at about a fifth of the population, will vote.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) party endorsed Kilicdaroglu in the first round but, after his lurch to the right to win nationalist votes, it did not explicitly name him and urged voters rather to reject Erdogan's "one-man regime" in the runoff.

'MORE ERDOGAN'

Polls will open at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and close at 5 p.m. (1400 GMT). By late on Sunday there should be a clear indication of the winner.

"Turkey has a longstanding democratic tradition and a longstanding nationalist tradition, and right now it's clearly the nationalist one that's winning out. Erdogan has fused religious and national pride, offering voters an aggressive anti-elitism," said Nicholas Danforth, Turkey historian and non-resident fellow at think tank ELIAMEP.

"More Erdogan means more Erdogan. People know who he is and what his vision for the country is, and it seems a lot of them approve."

Turkey's president has pulled out all the stops on the campaign trail as he battles to survive his toughest political test. He commands fierce loyalty from pious Turks who once felt disenfranchised in secular Turkey and his political career has survived the failed coup and corruption scandals.

Erdogan has taken tight control of most of Turkey's institutions and sidelined liberals and critics. Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2022, said Erdogan's government has set back Turkey's human rights record by decades.

However, if Turks do oust Erdogan, it will be largely because they saw their prosperity, equality and ability to meet basic needs decline, with inflation that topped 85% in October 2022.

Kilicdaroglu, a former civil servant, has pledged to roll back much of Erdogan's sweeping changes to Turkish domestic, foreign and economic policies.

He would also revert to the parliamentary system of governance, from Erdogan's executive presidential system, narrowly passed in a referendum in 2017.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul; Writing by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Nick Macfie

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Deadly Russian strikes obliterate Dnipro medical facility in central Ukraine - CNN

CNN  — 

At least two people died and dozens more were left injured after Russian forces struck a medical facility in the city of Dnipro on Friday morning, after intense shelling rained over central Ukraine overnight.

A 69-year-old man was killed while “just passing by when the rocket struck the city,” and the body of another man “was pulled out of the rubble,” said Serhii Lysak, head of the regional military administration.

CNN geolocated the attack to Dnipropetrovsk City Hospital No. 14 and a veterinary clinic in an industrial district north of the Dnipro river in the central Ukrainian city. The explosions in Dnipro occurred at around 10:30 a.m. local time (3:30 a.m. ET) on Friday, according to CCTV.

Earlier, the Ukrainian Air Force reported strikes on the Kyiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions from 10 p.m. Thursday night to 5 a.m. on Friday morning.

The Air Force command reported 17 cruise missiles and 31 “attack drones” and noted that there were strikes in Dnipro and Kharkiv regions using S-300/S-400 missile systems.

Kyiv also saw some air attacks across the city, according to Serhii Popko, head of the city’s military administration. He added that there were no casualties.

Russian strikes hit a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on May 26, 2023.

Serhii Lysak via Telegram/Reuters

Firefighters carry a body after the deadly Russian attack in Dnipro, which left at least two people dead.

State Emergency Service of Ukraine via AP

Around 31 people were wounded in the bombardment in Dnipro, including eight doctors and two children, according to the head of Dnipro’s regional council Mykola Lukashuk. Among the injured, 16 people were taken to hospitals and the others are receiving outpatient treatment, Lukashuk said in a Telegram post.

Rescue operations were ongoing on Friday afternoon, with workers searching for survivors under the rubble. Three people were missing following the attack.

Smoke rises after shelling near a seaport in Berdyansk, Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. Ukraine's navy reported Thursday that it had sunk the Russian ship Orsk in the Sea of Asov near the port city of Berdyansk. It released photos and video of fire and thick smoke coming from the port area. Russia did not immediately comment on the claim. (AP Photo)

AP

Ukrainians claim to have destroyed large Russian warship in Berdiansk

Scenes emerged of fires tearing through one of the buildings of the medical clinic. The video, posted by Lysak, also showed smoke pouring out of windows and a totally collapsed roof.

A CNN team on the ground saw emergency workers standing on cranes and lowering water hoses over the wreckage, while diggers cleared rubble from the scene.

Dnipro Mayor Boris Filatov said that a change of shifts for doctors meant fewer people than usual were working at the facility at the time of the attack.

“The moment the rocket struck there was a change of shifts. Hopefully, there will be no more victims,” Filatov told journalists at the hospital site.

“It is a miracle that the rocket struck at the very moment of the doctors’ change of shifts.” He added that there were outpatient consultations when the attack took place.

The clinic is used to treat mentally ill patients and also houses an inpatient treatment facility, according to the mayor.

The rocket strike also affected a veterinary clinic, where animals undergoing treatment had to be dug out of the rubble, the clinic’s owner said.

“All the employees are in a state of shock,” clinic owner Dr. Andrii Malyshko told Ukrainian TV. “All the animals were saved from the burning building.”

The rocket hit the clinic at around 10:30 a.m. local time, which caused a fire. The clinic had numerous dogs and some cats, which were all transferred to clinics nearby, according to Malyshko.

‘Violation of international humanitarian law’

Kyiv and its Western allies fiercely condemned the Kremlin’s attack on central Ukraine, calling for accountability over the Russian strikes.

France called them “war crimes” that “cannot go unpunished,” according to a statement from the French Foreign Ministry.

The missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions of Ukraine “once again deliberately targeted civilian sites,” the ministry said, “in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday: “Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest.”

“The shelling aftermath is being eliminated and the victims are being rescued. All necessary services are involved,” he added.

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Anti-Kremlin Group Involved in Border Raid Is Led by a Neo-Nazi - The New York Times

One of the anti-Kremlin groups responsible for an armed incursion into Russia this week, the Russian Volunteer Corps, is led by a far-right extremist described by German officials and humanitarian groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, as a neo-Nazi.

The Volunteer Corps, made up of Russians who oppose Vladimir V. Putin’s war, does not have any public affiliation with the Ukrainian Army. But the group’s claims to be fighting for Ukraine’s cause present an uncomfortable situation for the government in Kyiv. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has falsely claimed that his country is fighting Nazis as a pretext for his country’s invasion, a regular theme of Kremlin propaganda.

The commander of the corps, Denis Kapustin — who has long used the alias Denis Nikitin, but typically goes by his military call sign, White Rex — is a Russian citizen who moved to Germany in the early 2000s. He associated with a group of violent soccer fans and later became, according to officials in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, “one of the most influential activists” in a neo-Nazi splinter of the mixed-martial-arts scene.

He has been barred from entering Europe’s visa-free 27-country Schengen zone.

The Volunteer Corps, known by its Russian initials R.D.K., also claimed credit for two incidents in the Russian border region of Bryansk in March and April. Ukrainian authorities have publicly denied any role in the fighting on the Russian side of the border.

The Russian Volunteer Corps was one of two groups of Russian fighters that conducted a cross-border attack in the Belgorod region of southern Russia that began on Monday, engaging Russian troops over two days of skirmishing. The aim of the incursions, the groups say, is to force Russia to redeploy soldiers from occupied areas of Ukraine to defend its borders, as Ukraine prepares for a counteroffensive.

The second group was the Free Russia Legion, which operates under the umbrella of Ukraine’s International Legion, a force that includes American and British volunteers, as well as Belarusians, Georgians and others. It is overseen by Ukraine’s Armed Forces and commanded by Ukrainian officers. Several hundred Russian fighters have been deployed to the front lines in eastern Ukraine, officials said.

At a joint news conference with the Free Russia Legion on Wednesday, Mr. Kapustin said his group was not under the control of the Ukrainian Army, but that the military had supported his fighters with information, gasoline, food and medical supplies, along with the evacuation of wounded personnel. That claim could not be independently verified.

Andriy Chernyak, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, said that he did not have any information about possible material support the Ukrainian military may have given to members of the R.D.K., but said that “Ukraine definitely supports all those who are ready to fight the Putin regime.”

“People came to Ukraine and said that they want to help us to fight Putin’s regime, so of course we let them, same as many other people from foreign countries,” Mr. Chernyak said.

Ukraine has called the incursions an “internal Russian crisis” given that the members of the group are Russians themselves, and the episode plays into a Ukrainian military objective of trying to force Russia to redeploy troops from the front lines to defend its borders.

Michael Colborne, a researcher at Bellingcat who reports on the international far right, said he was hesitant to even call the Russian Volunteer Corps a military unit.

“They are largely a far-right group of neo-Nazi exiles who are undertaking these incursions into Russian-held territory who seem far more concerned about making social media content than anything else,” Mr. Colborne said.

Some of the other members of the Russian Volunteer Corps photographed during the border raids also have publicly embraced neo-Nazi views. One man, Aleksandr Skachkov, was arrested by the Ukrainian Security Services in 2020 for selling a Russian translation of the white supremacist manifesto of the shooter in Christchurch, New Zealand, who killed 51 mosque worshipers in 2019.

Another one, Aleksei Levkin, who filmed a selfie video wearing the R.D.K. insignia, is a founder of a group called Wotanjugend that started in Russia but later moved to Ukraine. Mr. Levkin also organizes a National Socialist Black Metal Festival, which began in Moscow in 2012 but was held in Kyiv from 2014 until 2019.

Pictures posted online by the fighters earlier this week of volunteer corps members posing in front of captured Russian equipment featured some fighters wearing Nazi-style patches and equipment. One patch depicts a hooded member of the Ku Klux Klan and another shows a Black Sun, a symbol with a strong connection to Nazi Germany.

Mr. Colborne said the images of Mr. Kapustin and his fighters could do damage to Ukraine’s defense by making allies wary that they could be supporting far-right armed groups.

“I worry that something like this could backfire on Ukraine because these are not ambiguous people,” he said. “These are not unknown people, and they are not helping Ukraine in any practical sense.”

Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting from London and Oleg Matsnev from Berlin.

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