Andrii Kovalenko, chief of the Ukraine Security Council’s counter-disinformation operation, said on Tuesday that Ukrainian forces have begun shelling North Korean mercenary soldiers in the Kursk region of Russia.
Ukrainian officials said about 45,000 Russian troops are massing in Kursk alongside the North Koreans, preparing for a counter-offensive to expel Ukrainian forces that invaded the province in August.
Kovalenko offered no details of Ukraine’s operation against the estimated 12,000 North Korean troops imported by Russia.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Ukrainian forces have engaged in “small-scale” fighting with Russian units that included North Korean mercenaries. He noted that the North Koreans are disguised as Mongolian soldiers from Siberia, so it was not easy to tell exactly who was on the receiving end of Ukrainian fire.
Umerov said he anticipates five North Korean units, with about 3,000 troops each, will ultimately be deployed in Kursk. This would be somewhat higher than the estimate of 12,000 North Korean troops previously offered by Ukrainian, American, and South Korean intelligence agencies. The Pentagon believes at least 10,000 North Koreans are already in Russia.
“They’ve provided them a training period of a month, which is now being shortened to several weeks or to one week so that they could get engagement on the battlefield,” Umerov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in a Tuesday video address that “the first battles with North Korean soldiers open a new page of instability in the world.”
“Together with the world, we must do everything to make this Russian step to expand the war – to really escalate it – to make this step a failure,” he said.
Ukrainian commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy said on Wednesday that Russia has massed about 45,000 troops in Kursk, probably preparing for an assault on Ukrainian troops that have held positions in the Russian province for the past three months.
“Russia’s own troops are not enough in this direction, so they are trying to attract military personnel from North Korea there,” he said.
Syrskiy said the Kursk offensive in August was necessary to forestall an expected Russian attack on the neighboring Sumy region of Ukraine. He argued the best way to pre-empt this attack was “the transfer of hostilities to the territory of the enemy in the Kursk region.”
The Pentagon on Tuesday investigated a report that North Korean soldiers in Russia, having gained access to the free world’s Internet for the first time, are obsessively watching vast amounts of pornography. The New York Post cheekily dubbed it the “battle of the bulge.”
Pentagon spokesman Maj. Charlie Dietz said on Tuesday he could not verify “any North Korean Internet habits” or “virtual extracurriculars” they might be partaking in.
“As for internet access, that’s a question best directed to Moscow. Right now, our attention remains on supporting Ukraine and addressing the more significant regional security concerns,” Dietz said.
