More than 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded in Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine war, claims Volodymyr Zelensky.
The Ukrainian president alleged that the North Korean military had suffered such high casualties within weeks of being thrown into battle in attempts to recapture a swathe of the Kursk region of Russia seized by Kyiv troops in a surprise attack in the summer.
“Today, we also received a report from Commander-in-Chief Syrskyi on the frontline and the areas of the Kursk operation....,” Mr Zelensky posted on X, also known as Twitter.
“According to preliminary data, the number of North Korean soldiers killed and wounded in the Kursk region has already exceeded 3,000.”
I held a meeting of the Staff.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 23, 2024
We thoroughly analyzed our work with Syria after the fall of Assad and his escape.
Today, the intelligence services presented their reports—the Foreign Intelligence Service and the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine—as well as the Ministers of…
The Ukrainian estimate of North Korean losses is far higher than that provided by Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which said on Monday at least 1,100 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.
Earlier, South Korea’s military said North Korea may be preparing to send more troops and weapons, including “kamikaze” drones, to Russia to support Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Pyongyang has already supplied 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers to Russia, according to Seoul’s JCS.
It highlighted signs that North Korea has been preparing to produce more “kamikaze” drones to be shipped to Russia after leader Kim Jong Un guided a test last month.
“Suicide drones are one of the tasks that Kim Jong Un has focused on,” a JCS official said, adding that the North had expressed its intention to give them to Russia.
Such drones have been widely used in the Ukraine war, and Kim ordered a mass production of the aerial weapons and an update of military theory and education, citing intensifying global competition, state media reported.
Seoul, Washington and Kyiv have said there are around 12,000 North Korean troops in Russia.
The JCS said at least 1,100 of them had been killed or wounded, in line with last week’s briefing by South Korea’s spy agency which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the Kursk region of Russia which was seized by Ukrainian forces in a surprise attack in the summer.
Putin is believed to be stepping up Russian offensives in eastern Ukraine in a bid to grab as much land as possible, even if it means suffering heavy losses, before Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20, having said he could end the war in a day.
Joe Biden’s administration and other allies have supplied Kyiv with more weapons to help it try to hold onto land ahead of any peace talks.
The outgoing president allowed Ukraine to fire long range missiles supplied by the West, including British Storm Shadows which use US data systems, into Russia after North Korean troops were deployed to Russia.
Pyongyang’s growing military ties with Moscow could pose greater threats to Seoul as it modernises its conventional forces, deemed inferior to the South’s, and gains combat experience, the JCS official said.
Along the heavily fortified Korean border, the North has dispatched up to 10,000 soldiers to turn the area into a wasteland and install barriers and barbed wire in recent weeks, though the numbers fell to several hundred over the weekend, the JCS said.
The JCS released photos that it said showed a group of North Korean troops testing the electrified wire fence using a goat.
There is also a possibility that the North will test-fire an intermediate-range hypersonic missile around year-end ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, while sending more garbage balloons to the South, it added.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s air force said on Monday it had shot down 47 out of 72 Russia-launched drones across the country, while 25 more failed to reach targets.
It said that the military repelled attacks in nine regions, including Kyiv surrounding the capital.
Houses and other properties were damaged in the Kyiv region and the western region of Khmelnytskyi where one person was injured.
