Views: 13
The United States will do everything possible to stop the supply of weapons from Iran and North Korea to Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken Said during a joint press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on June 18.
“We will continue to do everything we can to cut off the support that countries like Iran and North Korea are providing to Russia for the war against Ukraine,” he said.
Blinken noted that Russia is trying to strengthen relations with countries that can supply everything necessary to continue the war in Ukraine, particularly Iran and North Korea.
“We are very much concerned about this because this is what’s keeping the war going,” the American diplomat said.
He added that the fastest way to end the war is to deprive Russian dictator Vladimir Putin of the idea that he can outlast Ukraine and all its allies.
“But also, if he knows that the fuel he needs for his war machine won’t be there anymore,” Blinken added.
Earlier, White House spokesman John Kirby said that the United States is concerned about the deepening relations between Russia and North Korea, particularly the impact on the war in Ukraine and security on the Korean Peninsula.
North Korean weapons in Russia’s war against Ukraine
Russia launched strikes on Ukraine using North Korean ballistic missiles on Dec. 30, 2023, as well as on Jan. 2 and Jan. 6, 2024, National Security Council representative John Kirby said in early January.
North Korea is using Ukraine as a “testing ground” for its ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads, South Korean representative to the UN Hwang Joonkook declared.
Evidence of the Russian army using North Korean missiles in Ukraine was announced by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin on Jan. 11.
North Korea dismissed the US accusations of providing ballistic missiles to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine as “groundless.”
The Ukrainian Security Service reported documented evidence of Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure using North Korean weaponry on Feb. 22.
North Korea has sent about 7,000 containers of ammunition and other military equipment to Russia since last year, South Korea said.
Approximately half of the North Korean missiles launched by Russia at Ukraine from December 2023 to February 2024 exploded in mid-air, the Prosecutor General’s Office said on May 7.