Kremlin Says: Don't Be Worried about Russian Warships in Cuba

The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan (L) and the class frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrive at Havana, Cuba, June 12, 2024. (AFP Photo)
The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan (L) and the class frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrive at Havana, Cuba, June 12, 2024. (AFP Photo)
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Kremlin Says: Don't Be Worried about Russian Warships in Cuba

The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan (L) and the class frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrive at Havana, Cuba, June 12, 2024. (AFP Photo)
The Russian nuclear-powered submarine Kazan (L) and the class frigate Admiral Gorshkov arrive at Havana, Cuba, June 12, 2024. (AFP Photo)

The Kremlin, asked about US nervousness about Russian warships visiting Cuba, said on Thursday that there was no reason for any country including the United States to be worried by the exercise.
A Russian navy frigate and a nuclear-powered submarine churned into Havana harbor on Wednesday, a stopover the US and Cuba said posed no threat but which was widely seen as a Russian show of force as tensions rise over the Ukraine war, Reuters said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was common practice for all states including major maritime powers such as Russia to carry out military exercises.



North Korean Troops Experience Mass Casualties on Ukraine Front Lines, White House Says

A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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North Korean Troops Experience Mass Casualties on Ukraine Front Lines, White House Says

A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
A Ukrainian soldier reflected in a car mirror looks on as a Swedish-made Archer Howitzer operated by Ukrainian members of the 45th Artillery Brigade fires towards Russian positions, in the Donetsk region, on January 20, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the front lines of Russia's war against Ukraine, with a thousand of their troops killed or wounded in the last week alone in the Kursk region of Russia, White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Friday.

The number far exceeds the figure US officials have previously provided.

"It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses," Kirby said, describing the North Korean troops' offensive as "massed, dismounted assaults."

The North Korean and Russian missions to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kirby said President Joe Biden would likely approve another security assistance package for Ukraine in coming days. Earlier this week, Biden condemned Russia's Christmas Day attacks on Ukraine's energy system and some of its cities and asked the Defense Department to continue its surge of weapons to Ukraine.

On Dec. 17, a US military official said North Korea had suffered several hundred casualties while fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk region.

Asked about what ranks the North Korean casualties included, the military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was from lower-level troops to "very near to the top."

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that more than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded in Russia's Kursk region.