Ukraine updates: Russia, N. Korea defense pact takes effect – DW – 12/05/2024

The top military officials in the US and Russia held virtual talks last week amid heightening tensions between the two sides in recent weeks.

US Air Force General C.Q. Brown, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke by phone with Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov last week, the US military said.

It’s the first time Brown spoke with his Russian counterpart.

“The leaders discussed a number of global and regional security issues to include the ongoing conflict in Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Brown said in a statement.

The rare call took place on November 27, but “at the request of Gen. Gerasimov, Gen. Brown agreed to not proactively announce the call.”

The request for the call was made by the Russian Defense Ministry, the spokesperson said.

Brown became the top US general last year, and Gerasimov last spoke with Brown’s predecessor, Mark Milley.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is visiting Malta to attend a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday.

This is his first visit to an EU member state since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also attending the meeting but he has no plans to meet Lavrov.

The OSCE has 57 members and it helps them coordinate issues such as human rights and arms control.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the organization.

Kyiv boycotted last year’s summit over Lavrov’s attendance but the Ukrainian foreign minister is attending the meeting in Malta.

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski criticized Lavrov’s attendance and said he would walk out.

“Mr Lavrov is coming here to lie about [the[ Russian invasion and what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And I’m not going to listen to those lies,” he said.

“Well, I will not be sitting at one table with Mr Lavrov. Russia corrupts every organization she joins. We need Russia to get out of Ukraine and only then will this organization make sense.”

His Latvian counterpart Baiba Braze said she would be doing the same.

“I will not be in one room with Mr Lavrov, I will walk out, yes. ((Flash)) I don’t know what signal it sends, but i cannot be in one room as an aggressor state.”

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has warned of increasing Russian military provocations in the Baltic Sea region.

There is an “increased presence of the Russian navy and civilian ships in the Baltic Sea,” the minister said speaking to the German public radio on Thursday.

There are repeated incidents there that “result from warning shots being fired into the air, warning shots being fired into the water,” Pistorius said, adding that the Russian navy is trying to “send signals.”

Germany and its NATO allies are countering this with their presence in the Baltic Sea, but want to avoid an escalation, the minister underlined.

“Our navy and that of the allies are behaving very prudently and with foresight,” he said, stressing that it is important “that we are present in the Baltic Sea with the allies.”

A major defense pact between North Korea and Russia has gone into effect after the two sides exchanged ratification documents, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency said Thursday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed the treaty in June.

The agreement obligates both states to provide military assistance in the case of an attack on the other, and to jointly oppose Western sanctions.

Moscow and Pyongyang have moved closer to each other in recent years amid increased tensions with the West.

The US and South Korea have accused the North of getting involved in Ukraine by dispatching thousands of North Korean troops to fight alongside Russian forces.

sri/rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)