“Hundreds” of North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured in the fighting between them and the Ukrainian army in the Russian region of Kursk, a senior American military official said Tuesday.
“Several hundred casualties is our latest estimate of North Korea’s losses,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Several thousand North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia in recent weeks to support the Russian army, according to Westerners.
According to kyiv, Russia launched an “intense” counter-offensive with help from Pyongyang on the ground. “For three days, the enemy has been carrying out intense offensive operations in the Kursk region, actively using units of the North Korean army” which have already “suffered heavy losses,” declared the commander in chief of the Ukrainian army Oleksandr Syrsky by participating by videoconference in a congress of regional officials, broadcast on Ukrainian television.
Tens of thousands of soldiers mobilized
He assured that Ukrainian troops were “firmly holding” the lines “destroying enemy personnel and equipment.” Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) said on Monday that “at least 30” North Korean soldiers, fighting alongside the Russian army, were injured or killed on Saturday and Sunday in the Russian region of Kursk, bordering Ukraine. On Tuesday, Ukrainian special forces then declared that they had “destroyed 50 soldiers” of North Korea and injured 47 in the Kursk region.
Faced with the invasion of Moscow for almost three years, Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in the Russian region of Kursk at the beginning of August, the most important on Russian territory since the Second World War, and still controls a small part of it.
Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual defense agreement in recent months, which entered into force at the beginning of December according to Russian diplomacy, article 4 of which provides for “immediate military aid” in the event of armed aggression from third countries. .
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that North Korean troops fighting for Russia were carrying out “assaults” in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukraine still occupies several hundred square kilometers. He then also accused Moscow of having taken the war to “another stage”. Ukraine has warned that Russia has amassed some 50,000 troops, including several thousand North Korean troops, to regain full control of its Kursk region.
