North Korean soldiers clashed with Ukrainian troops for the first time, senior Ukrainian officials revealed.
In an interview with South Korean television channel KBS, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said a “small group” of North Korean soldiers had been attacked.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, who previously condemned the lack of Western response to North Korean troops, said these “first battles with North Korea open a new chapter of instability in the world.”
He said about 11,000 North Korean troops were in the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian troops are based.
Ukraine's top counter-disinformation official, Andriy Kovalenko, said in a Telegram post on Monday that “the first North Korean military units… (had) already come under fire in Kursk.”
In an interview with South Korean broadcaster KBS, Rustem Umerov confirmed this, saying he expects a “significant number” of North Korean troops to be engaged in combat, while adding that these have “so far been small contacts, not large-scale engagement”. “.
Most of them are still in training, he added.
“They wear Russian uniforms, undergo tactical training and are deployed under different commands of the Russian army on the front line,” Oumerov explained.
He said it was likely that five units, each consisting of around 3,000 troops, would be deployed to the battlefield.
He did not specify whether there were any casualties.
In a daily video address on Wednesday, Zelensky called on Ukraine “together with the world… (to) do everything so that this Russian move towards the extension of the war… is a failure. Both for itself and for the North Korea”.
Intelligence sources from South Korea, the United States and NATO had all confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops.
Late last month, Seoul summoned the Russian ambassador, demanding the “immediate withdrawal” of North Korean troops. She also warned that she was considering directly supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Analysts have said Pyongyang could be paid or given access to Russian military technology in exchange for troops.
On Wednesday, Russian lawmakers will vote to ratify a mutual defense treaty with North Korea, first proposed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's lavish visit to Pyongyang in June.
He promises that Russia and North Korea will help each other in the event of “aggression” against either country. The two countries have neither confirmed nor denied sending North Korean troops to Russia.
