KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently deployed to help Russia in the war with its neighbor, Ukraine’s defense minister said Tuesday.
Another Kyiv official said Ukraine’s army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in Russia’s Kursk border region.
North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are misidentified on their uniforms, Umerov was quoted as saying by KBS.
That makes it hard to say whether there were any North Korean casualties, he said.
The Pentagon said Monday that at least 10,000 North Korean soldiers were in Russia near Ukraine’s border.
Ukraine’s defense minister announced Tuesday that Ukrainian troops had engaged North Korean units recently sent to support Russia in the conflict with its neighbor for the first time.
Ukraine’s army fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in the Kursk border region of Russia, according to another Kyiv official.
The remarks were the first formal indications that North Korean and Ukrainian forces had fought each other, after a deployment that has changed the war’s face as it nears the 1,000-day mark.
It was impossible to independently verify either claim.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS in an interview that Pyongyang’s direct involvement in Europe’s largest conflict since World War II began with “small-scale” fighting between Ukrainian and North Korean troops.
KBS cited Umerov as saying that North Korean soldiers are mistakenly identified by their uniforms and mixed with Russian troops. He stated that it is difficult to determine whether any North Koreans were killed.
According to reports, Umerov stated that he anticipates the deployment of five North Korean units, each with roughly 3,000 soldiers, to the Kursk region.
“The first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region,” Ukrainian Security Council counter-disinformation chief Andrii Kovalenko said. “.”.
He didn’t add anything more.
Western governments anticipated that the North Korean troops would be deployed to the Kursk border region of Russia, where the Ukrainian army’s three-month-old incursion marks the first time Russian territory has been occupied since World War II and has caused embarrassment for the Kremlin.
U. S. . According to intelligence reports from South Korea and Ukraine, Pyongyang has an agreement with Moscow to send up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops to the conflict.
At least 10,000 North Korean soldiers are in Russia close to Ukraine’s border, the Pentagon reported Monday.
An analysis released Tuesday by the international think tank European Council on Foreign Relations suggests that additional troops from North Korea’s 11.3 million-strong army may be sent to Russia.
It said the implications go well beyond Europe.
According to the analysis, “the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia represents a significant shift in European and Asian security relations, despite integration challenges — including communication barriers and differing military doctrines.”. Troops from East Asia are actively participating in a European conflict for the first time in generations. “.”.
Ukraine’s situation on the battlefield is getting worse due to the presence of North Korean troops, whose combat skills and experience are unknown.
Russia’s expensive but unrelenting months-long assault is causing Ukrainian defenses, particularly in the eastern Donetsk region, to buckle.
Russian advances have accelerated recently; in some areas of Donetsk, the U.S. military has gained up to 9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) on the battlefield. The K. On the social media site X, the Defense Ministry stated on Tuesday.
According to the report, Russia has a larger military and, in spite of significant losses, the Kremlin’s recruitment campaign is supplying enough fresh troops to maintain the pressure.
For the past 12 months, Russia has maintained the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have long lamented the excessive delay in receiving military assistance from the West.
Vuhledar, a town in eastern Ukraine situated atop a strategically important hill, was overrun by Russian forces in early October.
It was a component of the eastern Ukrainian defense belt. Russia’s next targets are probably the strategically significant city of Chasiv Yar and Pokrovsk, which serves as a major logistics hub.
According to officials, Russia has continued its long-range aerial attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas in the interim.
According to regional governor, an attack on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday morning left six people dead and 23 injured. said Ivan Fedorov.
According to Andrii Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, the Russian attacks “must be stopped with strong action.”. “”.
“Ukraine’s Western allies need to take a stronger stance,” he wrote on Telegram.
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