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 that the Russians have started using North Korean soldiers in assaults – in significant quantities,” 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 there. But we have information saying they could be employed 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 an escalation, then what is the escalation that many are talking about?” he continued, referring 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.
At the end of November, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin estimated that some 10,000 members of the North Korean army were in Russia’s Kursk region.
“I fully expect to see them engaged in combat soon,” Mr. Austin said at the time.
| © AFP Ukraine: positions of military forces |
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 “certain” 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.
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