War in Ukraine | North Korean soldiers take part in “assaults” in the Kursk region

(Kyiv) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that North Korean troops fighting for Russia may have carried out offensive actions in the part of Russia’s Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army.

“There is preliminary information indicating that the Russians have begun using North Korean soldiers in assaults – in a notable amount,” Mr. Zelensky said in his daily address.

“The Russians are integrating them into combined units and using them in operations in the Kursk region. For now, just in this place. But we have information claiming that they could be used in other parts of the front,” he added.

According to him, North Korean troops are “already suffering notable losses”. He also accused Moscow of taking the war to “another stage.”

“If this is not escalation, then what is the escalation that many are talking about? “, he continued, in reference to the voices reluctant to support Kyiv because they fear an escalation with Moscow.

Ukraine has warned that Russia has amassed some 50,000 troops, including several thousand North Korean troops, to regain control of areas of the Kursk region occupied by the Ukrainian army since a surprise offensive in early August.

In late November, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimated that some 10,000 members of the North Korean military were in Russia’s Kursk region.

“I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” Mr. Austin said at the time.

Lloyd Austin then said he had “not seen any significant information” reporting North Korean soldiers “actively engaged in combat”.

At the beginning of November, Mr. Zelensky assured him that “some” North Korean soldiers had already taken part in hostilities and suffered losses in the Kursk region.

South Korean government officials and a research organization said last month that Moscow was providing fuel, anti-aircraft missiles and economic aid to Pyongyang in exchange for the troops.

Kyiv claims strike on oil site

Ukraine claimed on Saturday to have bombed an oil site in the Russian region of Oriol (west) overnight, sparking a fire, with local authorities confirming a “massive drone attack”.

The Ukrainian General Staff said in a statement that Kyiv forces attacked this site in the town of Stalnoy Kon, located in the Oriol region about 165 km from the Ukrainian border.

“This is one of the largest oil terminals in the suburbs of (the town) of Oriol” which is part of the “military-industrial complex” supplying the Russian army, affirmed the Ukrainian general staff.

Alleged images of the attack, published by Russian media, show wisps of smoke billowing overnight from a fire.

On Telegram, the Russian governor of the region, Andrei Klychkov, confirmed on Saturday that fuel had caught fire on “an infrastructure” after a “massive drone attack”.

He said 11 enemy drones were shot down by air defense and as of 5 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Eastern Time) the fire had been brought under control, but not yet extinguished.

The attack did not cause any casualties, he added.

In the Russian region of Belgorod, however, a nine-year-old boy was killed during a Ukrainian drone attack that hit a house in the village of Maiski, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Saturday.

According to this source, the victim’s mother and her second child, a seven-year-old girl, were injured during the attack and hospitalized.

In response to Russian bombings which are destroying its infrastructure and causing numerous civilian casualties, Kyiv regularly carries out drone strikes in Russia, particularly on military and energy sites.

During the night from Friday to Saturday, Russia carried out an attack on Ukraine with 132 drones, 130 of which were neutralized, the Ukrainian Air Force said.

For its part, the Kremlin army said on Saturday that it had shot down around forty enemy drones during the night and morning, mainly over Russian regions bordering Ukraine.