According to Washington, North Korean soldiers are being used as “cannon fodder”.
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Kursk is the Russian region that some Ukrainians want to hold at all costs, while others question the point of having gone there.
The fighting there is so intense that some Ukrainian commanders cannot evacuate the dead. Communication delays and poorly timed tactics have cost lives, and troops have few means to counterattack, seven front-line soldiers and commanders told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Since being caught off guard by Ukraine's lightning incursion, Russia has amassed more than 50,000 troops in the region, some of them from North Korea. It is difficult to obtain precise figures, but Moscow's counterattack left thousands dead and wounded and the overwhelmed Ukrainians lost more than 40% of the 984 square kilometers of Kursk that they seized in august.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has suggested he hopes control of Kursk will help force Moscow to negotiate an end to the war. But five Ukrainian and Western officials in Kyiv, who spoke on condition of anonymity, say they fear banking on Kursk will weaken the entire 1,000-kilometer front line, and that Ukraine is losing valuable ground in the east of the country.
“We have, as they say, hit a hornet’s nest. We have caused a new hot spot”estimates Stepan Lutsiv, major of the 95th airborne assault brigade.
Army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said Ukraine launched the operation because authorities believed Russia was about to launch a new attack in northeastern Ukraine.
The operation began on August 5 with orders to leave Ukraine's Sumy region for what they believed would be a nine-day raid designed to knock out the enemy. This occupation was welcomed by Ukrainians, as their country gained influence and embarrassed Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Gathering his men, a company commander told them: “We are making history; the whole world will know us, because this has not been done since World War II.”
In private, he was less sure of himself. “It seemed crazy to me.”he said. “I didn’t understand why.”
Russian counterattack
Shocked by the success achieved largely because the Russians had been taken by surprise, the Ukrainians were ordered to advance beyond the initial mission to the town of Korenevo, 25 kilometers inland of Russia. This was one of the first places where Russian troops counterattacked.
In early November, the Russians began to quickly regain ground. Once impressed by what they had accomplished, the troops changed their minds as they came to terms with the losses they had suffered. The company commander said half of his soldiers were dead or wounded.
Some front-line commanders say conditions are difficult, morale is low and troops are questioning command decisions and even the very purpose of occupying Kursk.
Another commander says that some orders received by his men do not correspond to reality due to communication delays. These delays mainly occur when territories are lost to Russian troops.
“They don't understand where our camp is, where the enemy is, what is under our control and what is not,” he said. “They don’t understand the operational situation, so we act at our own discretion.”
A section commander recounts how his superiors repeatedly rejected his requests to change his unit's defensive position even though he knew his men could not hold the line.
ADVERTISEMENT“Those who hold out until the end end up missing”he said. He also said he knew of at least 20 Ukrainian soldiers whose bodies had been abandoned over the past four months because the fighting was too intense to evacuate them without further casualties.
Ukrainian soldiers say they were unprepared for the Russian response at Kursk and could neither counterattack nor retreat.
“There is no other option. We will fight here because if we withdraw to our borders, they will not stop, they will continue to advance.”said the commander of a drone unit.
AP requested comment from the Ukrainian General Staff, but did not receive a response before publication.
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Longer-range U.S. weapons have slowed the Russian advance, and North Korean soldiers who joined the fighting last month are easy targets for drones and artillery because they lack combat discipline and move often in large groups in the open, according to Ukrainian troops.
On Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky said 3,000 North Korean troops had been killed and wounded. But they appear to be learning from their mistakes, Ukrainian soldiers added, by becoming more adept at camouflaging themselves near logging lines.
A clash took place last week near a forest area located between the towns of Kremenne and Vorontsovo.
Until last week, this area was under the control of Ukraine. This week, part of it was lost and Ukrainian troops fear Russian forces could reach a crucial logistics route.
ADVERTISEMENTFaced with losses on the front line in Ukraine's Donbass region, where Russia is closing in on a major supply hub, some Ukrainian soldiers are questioning whether Kursk was worth it.
“All the military can think about today is that Donbass has simply been sold”declared the section commander.
