WORLD BRIEFING: September 14, 2023
Today marks 568 days since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine
North Korea's leader Kim Jung Un has unexpectedly extended his visit to Russia, where he was meeting President Vladimir Putin for a suspected arms deal. The pair had discussed possibilities for military cooperation on Wednesday. Mr Putin also "gratefully" accepted an invitation from Mr Kim to visit North Korea, a Kremlin spokesperson said. Moscow is buying weapons for its war on Ukraine and any help would violate UN resolutions, the US has warned. Mr Kim was warmly received by Mr Putin at the Vostochny space centre on Wednesday in Russia's far east - the North Korean leader spent two days travelling there in his private luxury bulletproof train - BBC
South Korea has expressed regret that Russia and North Korea discussed military cooperation during their leaders' meeting, as Seoul is closely monitoring the possibility of joint military drills between Pyongyang and Moscow. Officials said South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will use his address next week at the United Nations General Assembly to stress grave concern over the military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. “Despite repeated warnings from the international community, I am deeply concerned and regretful that the North Korea-Russia summit has discussed the issue of military cooperation, including satellite development,” South Korea’s foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk told reporters on Thursday - VOA
A Russian pilot tried to shoot down an RAF surveillance plane after believing he had permission to fire, the BBC has learned. The pilot fired two missiles, the first of which missed rather than malfunctioned as claimed at the time. Russia had claimed the incident last September was caused by a "technical malfunction". The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) publicly accepted the Russian explanation. But now three senior Western defence sources with knowledge of the incident have told the BBC that Russian communications intercepted by the RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft give a very different account from the official version.
Search teams combed streets, wrecked buildings and even the sea Wednesday to look for bodies in a coastal Libyan city where the collapse of two dams unleashed a massive flash flood that killed at least 5,100 people. The Mediterranean city of Derna has struggled to get help after Sunday night’s deluge washed away most access roads. Aid workers who managed to reach the city described devastation in its center, with thousands still missing and tens of thousands left homeless. “Bodies are everywhere, inside houses, in the streets, at sea. Wherever you go, you find dead men, women, and children,” Emad al-Falah, an aid worker from Benghazi, said over the phone from Derna. “Entire families were lost.” - AP
Ukraine’s military said Thursday it shot down 17 drones that Russia used to target multiple areas of Ukraine in overnight attacks. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched a total of 22 drones in several waves of attacks directed at the Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions. Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said wreckage from one of three drones downed over the region damaged buildings and cars and started a grass fire. Lysak said Russian shelling also struck the region, but that there were no casualties reported. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down multiple Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region of western Russia early Thursday. Russia also said it repelled an attack Thursday on a patrol ship in the Black Sea, with Russian forces destroying five unmanned boats. Over Russian-controlled Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram it destroyed 11 Ukrainian drones. That came a day after a Ukrainian missile hit a strategic shipyard in Crimea, wounding 24 people and damaging two ships that were undergoing repairs - AP
The first images since the confirmation of the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin show that a suspected tent camp thought to be occupied by troops from Russia's Wagner mercenary group near the Belarusian village of Tsel, has been further dismantled. The images, taken by Planet Labs on September 9 and obtained by RFE/RL, show that since late August, 60 more tents with the capacity to house more than 1,000 personnel had been dismantled. That means that since early August, of 273 specialized military tents -- each of which houses up to 20 people -- for personnel, at least 160 had been dismantled, eliminating space for over 3,000 Wagner fighters. Some 5,000 troops were thought to have been settled at the site. Previous images from Planet Labs appear to show that the process of dismantling the camp most likely started on August 1 - RFE/RL
The United States said on September 14 that it was placing sanctions on more than 150 businesses and people from Russia to Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Georgia to try to crack down on evasion and deny the Kremlin access to technology, money, and financial channels that fuel President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine - RFE/RL
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said he is grateful to Bulgaria for not extending restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports from September 15.
Cargill Ready to Sell Stake in Russian Grain Terminal to Local Company. The US giant is waiting for approval from the government to sell its 25% in deep-sea KSK terminal in Novorossiysk to its main shareholder, Delo Group - Bloomberg