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Russia and Ukraine trade claims over Kursk and gas
Summary
A retrospective on 13 January 2025, when Moscow accused Kyiv over a TurkStream gas site and reports of captured North Korean soldiers circulated.
What was the security picture in the war on 13 January 2025? Two developments, one from that day and one from two days earlier, stood out.
On 13 January 2025, Russia accused Ukraine of targeting the Russkaya compressor station in Krasnodar Krai. The facility feeds gas into the TurkStream pipeline. Moscow said the drone attack, which it described as having taken place two days earlier, had failed.
Prisoners from North Korea
On 11 January 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukrainian forces had captured two North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast in Russia. He said both were in healthy condition. It was the first time such captives had survived since North Korea entered the war: two earlier North Korean prisoners of war had died of their injuries shortly after being captured.
The announcement concerned fighting in the Kursk offensive and North Korean involvement in the war on Russia's side.
Wider context
North Korea's support for Russia predates its troop deployment. It has backed Russia since 2017, when it recognised the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. In July 2022 it recognised the Russia-backed, self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics. Ukraine responded by severing diplomatic ties with Pyongyang.
The two reports pointed in different directions. One was a Russian allegation of an attempted strike on energy infrastructure on Russian territory. The other was a Ukrainian announcement about prisoners taken in the Kursk region.
