It’s the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that Pyongyang had sent between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers to Russia to help fight in the war.
North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region and facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.
The intelligence agency, known under its acronym GUR, said Ukrainian strikes near Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean units.
It said North Korean troops also faced supply issues and shortages of drinking water.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded in the fighting in Kursk.
It marked the first significant estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties several weeks after Kyiv announced that Pyongyang had sent between 10,000 and 12,000 soldiers to Russia to help fight in the war.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk region in August, dealing a significant blow to Russia’s prestige and forcing it to deploy some of its troops from eastern Ukraine, where they were pressing a slow-moving offensive.
The Russian army has been able to reclaim some territory in the Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, but has failed to fully dislodge them.
The casualty disclosure came as the Biden administration was pressing to send as much military aid as possible to Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.
In his nightly address on Thursday, Zelenskyy confirmed Washington was increasing military aid to Kyiv but didn’t give a figure.
“It’s very important that the United States is currently increasing supplies. This is necessary to balance the situation. I am grateful to our partners. The pace of supply must become such as to disrupt the pace of Russian assaults. We need greater military strength. And strong positions for diplomacy. Every unit, every brigade that ensures this brings us closer to the possibility of a normal peace,” he said.
Trump has long been critical of the amount of military aid the US has sent to Ukraine and that stance has raised fears among Ukraine and its allies that he will shut off the flow of funding when he enters the White House.
Strikes with Oreshnik
Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin threatened that Russia could again strike Ukraine with its new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile that was first used in a strike on Dnipro on 21 November.
Speaking to reporters, Putin said Russia has just a few Oreshnik missiles, but added that it wouldn’t hesitate to use them on Ukraine.
“We aren’t in a rush to use them, because those are powerful weapons intended for certain tasks,” he said. “But we wouldn’t exclude their use today or tomorrow if necessary.”
Putin said Russia has launched serial production of the new weapon and reaffirmed a plan to deploy some of Oreshnik missiles to Russia’s ally Belarus.
Putin also said that Russia was striving to bring the conflict in Ukraine to an end and that Slovakia had offered to be a platform for possible peace talks.
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