Worthy Christian News > World News > Ukraine Sees More Deaths Ahead Of ‘North Korean Military Arrivals’ (Worthy News Radio)

Ukraine Sees More Deaths Ahead Of ‘North Korean Military Arrivals’ (Worthy News Radio)

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – On the day that Pope Francis prayed that “the escalation stops,” news emerged that Russian attacks killed and injured civilians in widely separated parts of Ukraine, including children. More suffering was expected as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Russia plans to send North Korean troops into battle against his nation.

Ahead of their expected arrival, search and rescuers were sifting through destroyed buildings following a Russian missile strike over the weekend in Ukraine’s central city of Dnipro.

Authorities say at least five people were killed here, including a 14-year-old girl, adding to the many victims for a nation that is now in its third year of a devastating war

A Russian glide bomb reportedly also killed one person and injured three on Saturday in Kostiantynivka, near the frontline in the Donetsk region.

Elsewhere, officials said Russian shelling killed two people in a small town west of the southern city of Kherson.

Even Kyiv wasn’t safe, with local officials noting that a Russian drone strike killed a teenager during a night-time barrage on the Ukrainian capital that lasted for hours.

The intensified bombings come at a time when the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says over 14.6 million people in Ukraine – 40 percent of Ukraine’s total population – “require urgent humanitarian support.”

Among them are more than 3.5 million people internally displaced by the full-scale war. Over 6.5 million refugees from Ukraine have been recorded globally.

More suffering

Yet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fears more hardship is on the way, warning that Russia seeks to send North Korean troops into battle against his country.

He said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that “the first North Korean military will be used by Russia in combat zones” between Sunday and Monday and that the deployment was “an obvious escalating move by Russia.”

While they were apparently on their way, Russia’s defense ministry said its forces had taken control of another settlement in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it has made advances in recent months.

The ministry also claimed its air defenses brought down 51 Ukrainian drones over four regions near the border.

But Russia has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region after an incursion almost three months ago.

While finance ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) nations vowed on Saturday to step up efforts to prevent Russia from avoiding sanctions, and more Western weapons are transported to Ukraine, there have been growing calls to end Europe’s deadliest armed conflict since the Second World War.

Pope Francis urged prayers for those suffering,including children. Yet despite his Sunday appeal, it remained unclear when and how this war will end despite a growing humanitarian crisis.