North Korean troops recently deployed to help Russia in its war with Ukraine have come under Ukrainian fire, a kyiv official said Tuesday.
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North Korean troops in Russia shelled by Ukrainian forces, official says is the first time a Ukrainian official has said Pyongyang units were hit, following a deployment that gave the war a new lease of life face as we approach the 1,000 day mark.
« The first North Korean troops have already been bombed in the Kursk region “, wrote on Telegram Andrii Kovalenko, head of the counter-disinformation branch of the Ukrainian Security Council. He did not provide further details.
Western governments had expected North Korean soldiers to be sent to the Russian border region of Kursk, where a three-month incursion by the Ukrainian army occupies Russian territory for the first time since World War II, bringing embarrassed the Kremlin.
U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence services estimate that Pyongyang is sending up to 12,000 North Korean troops to the war under a pact with Moscow.
Ukrainian defense undermined
North Korean troops, whose quality and combat experience are unknown, are aggravating Ukraine's situation on the battlefield.
Ukraine's defenses, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region, are buckling under the pressure of Russia's costly but relentless months-long assault.
Russian advances have accelerated recently, with battlefield gains of up to 9 kilometers in parts of Donetsk, the British Ministry of Defense said on the X social platform on Tuesday.
He added that Russia had superior numbers and that, despite heavy losses, the Kremlin's recruitment drive was providing enough new troops to keep up the pressure.
Russia has taken the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine over the past year. Ukrainian officials have long complained that Western military support is taking too long to arrive in the country.
In early October, Russian forces drove Ukrainian troops from Vuhled, a tactically important hilltop town in eastern Ukraine.
This city was part of a Ukrainian defense belt in the east of the country. Russia's next targets are likely to be the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and the strategically important town of Chasiv Yar.
Meanwhile, Russia continued its long-range air attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine, according to authorities.
An attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday morning killed six people and injured 16 others, the region's governor, Ivan Fedorov, said.
The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said Russian attacks “must be stopped with strong action.”
« A tougher stance from Western allies is needed,” he wrote on Telegram.
