Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has claimed that around 30 North Korean troops were killed or wounded in fighting against the Ukrainian army at the weekend in Russia’s Kursk border region.
The North Korean casualties occurred around three villages in Kursk, where Russia has for four months been trying to quash a Ukrainian incursion, the agency known by its acronym GUR said in a public post on the Telegram messaging app.
At least three North Korean servicemen went missing around another Kursk village, GUR said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred questions about the claims to the Russian Defence Ministry, which did not comment.
North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to help it in the war, according to the Pentagon and Ukrainian officials.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has pledged unwavering support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour under a mutual defence pact.
Military analysts say the language barrier has bedevilled combat coordination between Russian and North Korean troops.
“The poor integration and ongoing communication problems between Russian and North Korean forces will likely continue to cause friction in Russian military operations in Kursk… in the near term,” the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said late on Sunday.
Ukraine seized land in Russia’s Kursk border region last August in what was the first occupation of Russian territory since the Second World War.
The operation embarrassed the Kremlin and aimed to counter unceasingly glum news from the front line.
The incursion has not significantly changed the war’s dynamics.
Over the past year, Russia has been on the front foot with the exception of Kursk and has been grinding deeper into eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region despite heavy losses.
