in Ukraine, North Korean troops record heavy losses

Faced with the invasion of Moscow for almost three years, Ukraine launched a surprise offensive in the Russian region of Kursk. Russia, helped by Pyongyang, is trying to counterattack.

Outdated combat techniques and heavy losses. Of the “hundreds“North Korean soldiers have been killed or injured in fighting with the Ukrainian army in Russia’s Kursk region in recent days, according to American and Ukrainian officials.

During an intense “counter-offensive” by Russian troops, in this region partially occupied by Ukraine since August, North Korean troops were involved, according to the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Oleksandre Syrsky, who spoke on Tuesday, December 17. “For three days, the enemy has been carrying out intense offensive operations in the Kursk region, actively using units of the North Korean army“, he clarified, adding that it had already “suffered heavy losses“.

According to the kyiv forces, although the first clashes between the Ukrainian army and North Korean soldiers already took place last month, North Korean losses had until now remained limited. This time, the fighting, according to Oleksandr Syrsky, has particularly intensified: Russia used Pyongyang’s soldiers in ground assaults, as also confirmed by a spokesperson for the American Pentagon.

According to military specialists, these North Koreans would be sent, wave after wave, rifle in hand, “like during the Korean War in the 1950s.”. On Tuesday, Ukrainian special operations forces claimed to have killed 50 of these soldiers, and wounded almost as many, in less than three days. Figures extremely difficult to verify. For Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Moscow is doing everything to hide these losses and conceal the identity of these soldiers, sometimes even going so far as to burn their faces.

Several thousand North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia in recent weeks to support the Russian army, according to Westerners. For its part, the Kremlin has each time evaded questions on the subject, not wanting to confirm this information. Pyongyang has neither confirmed nor denied this unprecedented deployment. 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, “immediate military aid” in the event of armed aggression from third countries.