Russia is reportedly sending thousands of soldiers to reclaim the border region of Kursk, where it has been fighting off an incursion by the Ukrainian military since the summer.
“Following the order of their military leadership, they are trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into the territory we control,” General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the chief of the Ukrainian military, said a day after the New York Times reported, citing US intelligence, that about 50,000 Russian and North Korean troops were headed to Kursk.
Gen Syrskyi, though, made no mention of the possible presence of North Korean soldiers.
The US, South Korea and Ukraine have claimed that North Korea has sent around 10,000 soldiers to join Russia’s fight amid rising concerns over Pyongyong’s involvement in the war.
A former first lieutenant in North Korea’s army told the Associated Press last week that Pyongyang’s troops were “cannon fodder because they will be sent to the most dangerous sites and will surely be killed”.
Russia has not confirmed or denied the presence of North Korean troops on its territory. Mr Putin on Saturday signed into law a treaty deepening Moscow’s strategic partnership with Pyongyang and providing for mutual defence in the event of an attack on either of them.
Ukraine last week said its forces had already engaged with North Korean troops on the battlefield. “The first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region,” Andrii Kovalenko, head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram.
Kyiv’s forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, seizing a number of settlements in the first such action on Russian territory since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The occupation of Russian territory for the first time since World War 2 has been a major embarrassment for the Kremlin.
The Russian military is claimed to be losing hundreds of troops a day, with Ukrainian estimates going as high as 1,200 to 1,500.
General Syrskyi said the Kursk operation was still successfully diverting Russian forces from mounting heavier attacks on the eastern front. “These tens of thousands of enemies from the best Russian shock units would have stormed our positions in the Pokrovsk, Kurakhiv or Toretsk directions, which would have significantly worsened the situation at the front,” he said.
