Putin says mutual defence clause is Russia's business
25/10/2024 6:09
President Vladimir
Putin did not deny U.S. claims that North Korea had sent troops
to Russia but said on Thursday it is up to Moscow how to run its
mutual defence clause with Pyongyang and accused the West of
escalating the Ukraine war.
The United States said on Wednesday that it had seen
evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for
possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that the West is casting
as a significant escalation of the Ukraine war.
Asked by a reporter about satellite imagery showing North
Korean troop movements, Putin said: "Images are a serious thing.
If there are images, then they reflect something."
But he said NATO officers and instructors were directly
involved in the Ukraine war and it was the West that had
escalated the Ukraine crisis.
"We know who is present there, from which European NATO
countries, and how they carry out this work," Putin said.
The Kremlin chief specifically mentioned Article 4 of the
Russian partnership deal with North Korea, which deals with
mutual defence.
"There is article 4. We have never doubted in the least that
the North Korean leadership takes our agreements seriously. But
what we do within the framework of this article is our
business," Putin said.
A North Korean representative to the United Nations in New
York said the U.S. and South Korean assertions about sending
troops to Russia were "groundless rumors".
WAR OR PEACE?
The United States believes at least 3,000 North Korean
troops are undergoing training at three military bases in
eastern Russia, while Ukraine said North Korean units were
already in the Kursk region. This is the border region where
Ukrainian forces mounted a surprise incursion earlier this year.
Putin said Russia's army was moving forward along all
sections of the front in Ukraine, and had trapped a large number
of Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region.
Asked by one of Russia's top Kremlin correspondents what
he would be ready to consider to end the war, Putin said:
"We are ready to consider any options for peace agreements
based on the realities that are taking shape on the ground. And
I'm not ready for anything else."
Russia, which is advancing, controls about one fifth of
Ukraine, including Crimea which it annexed in 2014, about 80% of
the Donbas - a coal-and-steel zone comprising the Donetsk and
Luhansk regions - and over 70% of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson
regions.
Ukraine has said it will not rest until all Russian troops
are expelled from its territory.
TRUMP AND U.S. ELECTION
Asked about a Wall Street Journal report that cited
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as saying he had
threatened Putin against going after Ukraine on an unspecified
date in the past. Putin said he did not recall such a threat.
"You can threaten anyone. (But) it is pointless to threaten
Russia because it simply invigorates us," Putin said. "But I do
not recall such a conversation with Mr. Trump."
The Journal quoted Trump as saying that he had warned Putin
that if he went after Ukraine, "'I am going to hit you so hard,
you're not even going to believe it. I'm going to hit you right
in the middle of fricking Moscow.'"
Putin said it was wise not to take such statements
seriously given the heat of the presidential election campaign
but said that he felt Trump was sincere about his desire to end
the war in Ukraine.
"It seems to me that he says this sincerely, and statements
of this kind, from whomever they come, we certainly welcome,"
Putin said
Putin said an assertion by the head of the UK's MI5
security service this month that Russia's GRU military
intelligence agency is bent on causing chaos across Britain and
Europe was "complete nonsense".
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