Türkiye has reportedly delivered a small number of Korkut air defence systems to Ukraine at the beginning of the year to bolster its air defence capabilities and test them in the field.

A report by the Middle East Eye (MEE) portal, citing sources familiar with the matter, stated that the delivered systems were placed under operational evaluation by the Ukrainian military.

Manufactured by Aselsan, a standard set of the Korkut system consists of three weapon system vehicles and one command-and-control vehicle.

The sources did not share information regarding how many sets or vehicles were deployed to the field in Ukraine.

Developed to destroy a range of aerial targets, including cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, the system also possesses the capability to counter FPV drones and wire-guided drones using 25 mm ammunition.

Ukraine interested in additional purchases

Evaluating the system’s performance in the field to MEE, a Ukrainian official stated that Korkut passed the combat test.

Regarding the operational process, the Ukrainian official said: “There were some problems, but they are not the kind that cannot be overcome with minor adjustments.” The same official expressed that the Kyiv administration is interested in purchasing additional Korkut systems if the terms and price are favourable.

Ukrainian sources speaking to MEE reported that many Turkish defence industry companies are collaborating with the Ukrainian military to test and refine their systems.

The report recalled that since the start of the war, Türkiye has supplied Ukraine with various defence equipment, such as Bayraktar TB2s, laser-guided missiles, artillery ammunition, and machine guns.

Meanwhile, the US State Department notified Congress in August of its intention to approve the transfer of 70 M39 ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles from Türkiye’s inventory to Ukraine.

Following this potential shipment valued at approximately $280 million, the Russian Foreign Ministry demanded an explanation from Washington and Ankara regarding the matter.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova maintained that new arms shipments to Kyiv could not seriously alter the course of the military operation on the ground, but would adversely affect Russia’s relations with the US and Türkiye.

Zakharova said that providing weapons to Kyiv while using peace rhetoric undermined mutual trust. Ivan Timofeev, Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), noted that the possible transfer of US weapons to Ukraine via Türkiye could complicate prospects for a settlement.

The melting of Arctic glaciers and disruptions across Middle Eastern shipping lanes have markedly increased interest in the Northern Sea Route.

According to a report by the Financial Times based on Lloyd’s List Intelligence data, 133 voyages were recorded on this route in September.

This figure represented a 46% increase compared with August and quadrupled the 2022 data, reaching a record level.

The newspaper noted that nearly half of the voyages were carried out by Russian-flagged vessels.

Chinese shipping companies, seeking alternative corridors to the European market due to disruptions in the Red Sea and the Middle East, are also among the actors choosing this line.

The increase in maritime transport is seen as directly linked to the retreat of the ice cover in polar seas and risks across traditional trade routes.

The threat posed by Yemeni Houthis in the Bab al-Mandab Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea is cited among the primary reasons.

Bridget Diakun, head of maritime analytics and research at Lloyd’s List, stated that official authorities and shipping companies are turning to routes that are less affected by geopolitical upheavals.

It saves 16 days compared with the Red Sea

The Chinese-owned container vessel Dubai Tower reached Felixstowe in Britain from the port of Qingdao via the North Pole in 24 days in September.

The newspaper noted that a voyage undertaken via the Suez Canal or the Cape of Good Hope would take at least 40 days.

Another vessel belonging to the same company entered the polar route on 27 September en route from Ningbo to Felixstowe.

September, when the ice sheet recedes to its seasonal low, forms the busiest period in the region as it allows vessels to pass without an icebreaker.

Asian companies turn to the route

The infrastructure operations of the Northern Sea Route, which extends along Russia’s northern coastline, are managed by Rosatom, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation, which is responsible for regulating maritime traffic and developing facilities.

Transit permits for vessels are issued by GlavSevmorput, which operates within the agency.

Aleksey Likhachev, director general of Rosatom, reported in August that transit permits had been granted for seven vessels belonging to the Chinese shipping company Sealegend Shipping.

The company planned eight voyages between China and Europe between August and October, ice conditions permitting. Likhachev stated that the plan included weekly voyages throughout the navigation season.

South Korea is also among the countries taking an interest in the Northern Sea Route. According to an August report by Reuters, preparations were made for a first commercial voyage from Busan to Europe over the pole using the container vessel PanStar Acro.

While the voyage encompassing the ports of Felixstowe, Rotterdam, and Gdańsk was projected to take 40 to 45 days, South Korean officials calculated that the polar corridor shortened travel time by about 35%.

In a statement in April, Likhachev announced that Rosatom aims to exceed 40 million tonnes of cargo carried along the Northern Sea Route in 2026.

Cargo volume carried over the past two years has remained above 37 million tonnes.

Editor’s note: Alexander Shenderyuk-Zhidkov, Representative of the Kaliningrad Region in the Federation Council of Russia and First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Budget and Financial Markets, evaluated post-Cold War Russia-West relations and current geopolitical fault lines in his address at the East-West Forum held in Istanbul on September 26. Stating that Moscow opened its doors in good faith to the liberal world in the 1990s but faced hunger and conflict in return, Shenderyuk-Zhidkov noted that the West’s anti-sovereignty stance triggered these crises. Grounding the Russian conception of civilization in the legacies of Dostoevsky and Immanuel Kant, the Russian representative expressed that genuine universalism lies in understanding the other without compromising one’s own identity. Pointing out that artificial intelligence technology must not turn into a new tool of unipolar domination, the senator called for the preservation of a multipolar world order.

I’m from Kaliningrad. I was born in Kaliningrad. I have lived in Kaliningrad for 43 years. And you know, Kaliningrad was previously named Königsberg and it is the motherland of Immanuel Kant. And you know, for example, my wife, she’s now in Holland. She walks past the so-called philosophical path of Immanuel Kant every day because she has to go to university. And that is why if you are born in Kaliningrad, it’s very difficult not to be a philosopher, you know. And of course, perpetual peace.

That said, as Ulrike Guerot said a few hours ago, it is in the heart of any Kaliningradian, so let me talk a little bit about our view on peace and our view on the story. Everybody on this panel talked about 1992. Let me start from this. And you know, in 1992, we were very open to the new liberal world. American analysts sat in the Kremlin and helped our president Boris Yeltsin to make a new Russia. And what we got was hunger. And as a result, the Chechen war. So we opened our heart to the liberal world and received a war in our home.

And we were so sad. And we understood that the liberal world doesn’t need our happiness, they need our sovereignty. And when Putin in 1999 came to become Russian president, he came with only one phrase: let’s make Russia great again, 16 years before Trump, you know. And you know, we tried to build our sovereignty again. We tried to rebuild our country brick by brick. We tried to gather our lands. And as a result, the liberal world was not happy with this and brought us war in 2022 again. And of course, we are not so happy again.

And you know, I have a Ukrainian last name. I have two last names, Shenderyuk and Zhidkov. And both of them are Ukrainian. The founder of my family, Yakov Zhidkov, who was a Ukrainian Cossack, came to Emperor Peter the Great in the 18th century and asked him for land in the center of Russia, more than 1,000 kilometers from Kyiv. And the Russian Empire was not against it. It did not divide Russians into Ukrainians and Russians. We were all one nation. And you know, Oswald Spengler called us a young Russian civilization. He called us children of Dostoevsky. He called all Russians children of Dostoevsky.

But maybe some of them have not read Dostoevsky. I read Dostoevsky. I made a monument to Dostoevsky in the center of Kaliningrad and would like to say a few words about how we see Dostoevsky’s civilization, Russian civilization, and our Russian future. You know, that is why I need to look into my notes.

You know, Dostoevsky spoke of universal responsiveness of Russians. Not about dissolving into what is foreign, but about understanding the other while remaining oneself. That is the gift to enter another world without giving up your own. Liberal universalism offers the opposite from my point of view: first give up your history, your tradition, your form of life, then perhaps we will recognize you. And that is not openness from our point of view. You can’t be open to other nations and other countries if you are not a pure Russian.

You can’t be open to other countries if you are not your own nation. And this is our view and Dostoevsky’s view on this. But anyway, we are open to any country. And from my point of view, it is very close to perpetual peace. What Immanuel Kant was talking about. I can give you an example.

In 2005 we celebrated 750 years of Königsberg. And Mr. Putin attracted the President of France Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister of Germany Schröder to celebrate with us in Kaliningrad 750 years. And moreover, Mr. Putin named my university, my alma mater, after Immanuel Kant. And as of today, my alma mater is called Immanuel Kant University. Without link to any situation in the world. But times have changed. And my view is that mostly it was changed by Europeans and Americans. And now the situation is different. And all of us are talking about AI. And I would like to say that from my point of view, I like the Chinese way of viewing AI.

And I fully agree that one of the very important things with AI is that it should be open to all of us and we should know how it works. It is because of two things. First of all, I think all of us are worried that AI will destroy our lives. And the second is also very important. We should do our best to ensure that AI does not return us back to a unipolar world. Our world today is multipolar. And no country should have a chance to turn us back.

You know, I would like to say a few words about Germany, if you are not against it. Mr. Brzezinski in the middle of the 90s wrote his famous book The Grand Chessboard. And in this book he pointed out that Poland and Türkiye should be… That Americans should focus on Poland and Türkiye to help them stop Russia. And of course, this is the idea of sea civilization. If you are a civilization like America, you should turn your attention to very important centers like Istanbul, where the whole sea… And it was a very good idea from the NATO point of view.

But now Türkiye has the second largest NATO army in the world. First is the US. The US is only the fourth or fifth trade partner of Türkiye. China and Russia have much more, and the EU has a bigger trade turnover with Türkiye than the US. And my question is, why do you need Türkiye to be a partner of the USA? First, maybe you should be a new pole, part of our multipolar world. And Poland.

You know, Brzezinski was a very clever guy. And if you look at our Ukrainian war, it was taken from the pages of this book. But you know, this story with Poland turned out bad not only for Russia, it turned out bad also for Germany. My house is 40 km from the Polish border. And I know how for the last 30 years the Polish built their economy, used EU money, and built their roads. And I know that today Polish roads are better than German ones, unfortunately. I know that Mr. Dostoevsky lived in Germany for a long time and he liked Germans.

And I feel that anywhere, anywhere in this multipolar world, every one of us can find a vector, a multi-vector, how to link to each other and have peace between each other. And we believe that we can build new bridges. You know, Kaliningrad, that’s also like Istanbul, a city of bridges. Maybe you know the Seven Bridges of Königsberg puzzle. And you know, in April we built a new pedestrian bridge in our city in Kaliningrad to the grave of Immanuel Kant. I hope this forum can give us a chance to build a new bridge. Thank you very much.