The strike conducted by Ukraine last week marked the first time a Storm Shadow missile was launched into Russia, and followed a readjustment of western “red lines” in the conflict
Footage purports to show British Storm Shadow missiles in Russia on 20th November
A Storm Shadow strike launched by Ukraine last week killed hundreds of North Korean Troopers and a Russian general, it has been claimed.
A Russian general and 18 Putin officers were reported lost, with a further 18 reportedly wounded. Earlier it was reported that a Kim Jong Un general had been wounded – as he commanded troops backing Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The toll relates to the 20 November attack by Ukraine – the first to use UK Storm Shadow missiles deep inside Russia.
It was known the pinpoint missiles had hit a Putin command post and military facility, and the strike reportedly killed Lt-Gen Valery Solodchuk. Russian authorities have not confirmed losses which would be grievous to both Russia and North Korea if confirmed, and the reports are yet to be independently verified.
The Storm Shadows were targeted on 20 November at an underground military facility in Maryino on a Tsarist estate, in the Kursk region. New footage shows a Storm Shadow missile involved in the attack as it flew towards its target, it is claimed. If true, the losses may explain Vladimir Putin’s furious reaction – firing a new Oreshnik hypersonic missile at Dnipro, and his public boasts he had a new super weapon which was unstoppable by the West.
Moscow also threatened that use by Ukraine of NATO-supplied missiles meant Putin could legitimately hit back with nuclear missiles. The Russian officers reportedly killed are from Putin’s Southern and Eastern Military Districts. US-based Global Defense Corp reported that 500 North Korean soldiers were killed alongside Russian officers.
Some 10,000-plus North Koreans are believed to have been moved across Siberia to the war zone after being ordered to serve Putin by their leader Kim Jong Un. They are either currently fighting for Putin or about to be deployed. Storm Shadow missiles on 20 November hit the sanatorium of the Russian Presidential Affairs Directorate in Maryino, a former Tsarist estate, reports claim.
The government is yet to confirm whether it authorised the usage of Storm Shadow missiles in Ukraine, with supplies of the munitions provided to the country previously being sold with the stipulation that they only be fired within its own territory. In a recent statement to the House of Commons, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declined multiple times to deny reports that officials had allowed their use in the November 20 strike.
But he told MPs that Ukraine has a “clear right of self-defence”, saying: “The UK’s support for Ukraine is always for self-defence. It is proportionate, coordinated and agile, and a response to Russia’s own actions, and it is in accordance with international law. Under Article 51 of the UN Charter, Ukraine has a clear right of self-defence against Russia’s illegal attacks.”