SEOUL: The head of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region has sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, calling for cooperation amid signs the North is considering sending labourers for restoration projects in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
North Korea last month became one of the few nations to recognise the independence of Donetsk and Luhansk, another Russian-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine, prompting Kyiv to cut off diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.
There are indications North Korea is reviewing plans to send workers for restoration projects in those regions, which could help its economy but run against UN Security Council sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles programme.
In his comments, Donetsk separatist leader Denis Pushilin expressed hope that his Moscow-backed republic and North Korea could achieve “equally beneficial bilateral cooperation agreeing with the interests” of their people, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said yesterday.
Meanwhile, jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has called for systematic punitive measures against Russian oligarchs supporting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his military operation in Ukraine.
In a lengthy social media post, he said Western sanctions – by the United States, European Union or the United Kingdom – have only targeted 46 of the Forbes list of Russia’s 200 richest people.
“That doesn’t sound very much like an all-out war on Putin’s oligarchs to me,” Navalny said. — Agencies
