(Reuters) – Ukraine said on Monday North Korean forces fighting Russia lost 30 soldiers killed or wounded in an attack on several villages on the frontline in Russia’s Kursk region over the weekend.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency reported the loss in a statement after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russia was using North Korean forces in significant numbers for the first strike in Kursk, a Russian region where Ukraine first crossed the border in August.
This report is the first time Ukraine has informed North Korea of a loss of this scale and in more detail. It said that losses were recorded in the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka in the Kursk region.
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It was impossible to independently analyze the numbers. Russia neither supported nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side. Pyongyang initially dismissed reports of the deployment as “fake news”, but a North Korean official said any such deployment would be legal.
“Due to the losses, the combat units are being replenished with new personnel, mainly from the 94th separate brigade of the DPRK army, to continue the offensive in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian agency wrote, without providing evidence.
Kyiv first reported that North Korean troops had arrived in Russia’s Kursk region in October and later reported unspecified clashes and casualties. It is estimated that there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, in addition to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.
Ukraine, roughly one of the five regions controlled by Moscow’s military, has created an area in the Kursk region that its forces have been fighting to hold as a possible offer to settle peace talks.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alison Williams)