North Koreans killed in Kursk as Russia enters Ukraine war russia-ukraine war news

North Korean soldiers began going home in body bags over the weekend, as they fought alongside Russians in large numbers for the first time.

“Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean troops in their attacks. There are a significant number of them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) reported that the North Koreans had linked up with Russian marines and airborne troops – elite units – in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine has retaliated against.

“At one location in the Kursk region, (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea – DPRK) army personnel were effectively ‘covered’ by drones (First Person View),” GUR said in a statement. The North Koreans numbered 200 on the first day of engagement.

Al Jazeera is unable to confirm the death toll.

Eight of them were reportedly killed when the North Koreans accidentally opened fire on Chechen soldiers of the Akhmat battalion.

“The language barrier remains a difficult barrier to manage and coordinate,” GUR said.

Many losses were incurred when North Korean troops tried to withdraw from the Russian villages of Plekhovo, 2 km (1.2 mi) from the Ukrainian border, and Vorozhba and Martynovka, 10 km (6.2 mi) inside Russia.

“Birds of Magyar”, Ukraine’s Marine Corps unit specializing in unmanned aerial combat, released a video on Sunday describing North Koreans killed in Kursk. Drone footage panned over a line of bodies with covered faces.

“After each wave, 4-5 Koreans arrive on buggies, line up the mutilated bodies in a strip, as in the video, and cover the faces of the dead,” the unit said in a statement.

Other Ukrainian units fighting at Kursk took pride in highlighting successes against the North Koreans, whose presence Kiev sees as a significant escalation in the conflict.

The Faust Unit of Ukraine’s special forces reported killing or wounding 33 North Koreans in Kursk using light drones.

“The Koreans, despite walking awkwardly in the fields, are trained to counter-attack the drones and try to run away from them. They have not yet adopted the Russian strategy of freezing FPV (drones) when they appear,” the unit wrote on its Telegram channel.

The 8th Regiment of Ukrainian special forces said they killed 50 North Korean soldiers and wounded 47 in Kursk between Saturday and Monday.

Separately, the 95th Polisiya Airborne Assault Brigade claimed to have killed more than 50 soldiers and wounded 100 in two days. Brig wrote, “However, we will only claim that these were Korean mercenaries when a Korean captive tells of his difficult fate.” Its Telegram page.

“After serious losses, DPRK units began to set up additional observation posts to detect drones,” Ukrainian military intelligence said on Tuesday.

Zelensky postulated that Russia is adopting gruesome tactics to obscure North Korean troop losses.

“After the battle with our people, the Russians are also trying to literally burn the faces of the killed North Korean soldiers,” he wrote on Telegram.

“The Korean people have no reason to fight and die for Putin,” he said. And even after his death, all that awaits him from Russia is ridicule.

There was no statement from Russia or North Korea on these first deaths of Korean mercenaries.

operations on Russian soil

Ukraine also had success in carrying out sabotage and assassination behind enemy lines.

On the night from Friday to Saturday, saboteurs burned a Su-30 fighter plane at the Krymsk airfield in Krasnodar Krai.

That same night, Ukraine attacked the Steel Horse fuel production and offloading facility in Russia’s Oryol region, saying it was used to supply the military.

The previous day, they had burned and damaged three locomotives used to transport munitions to Ukraine.

Ukraine also committed two high-profile assassinations.

On Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) assassinated General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s radiation, chemical and biological protection troops. Kirillov was blown up while passing a parked scooter laden with explosives on Ryazansky Prospekt in the eastern suburbs of Moscow.

Kirillov was suspected of ordering the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops. His assistant, Major Ilya Polikarpov, was also killed.

Ukrainian agents were suspected on Thursday of murdering a prominent Russian military scientist.

Mikhail Shatsky was found dead in the Kuzminsky Forest Park in Moscow. He was reportedly involved in modernizing Kh-59 missiles to Kh-69 level and writing AI software for unmanned aerial vehicles for the Russian military.

Shatsky was head of software at Mars, the Moscow Research and Design Bureau, a subsidiary of Rosatom, the Russian state atomic energy agency.

Maybe ATACMS is doing its job

Ukraine may also succeed in pushing Russian aircraft far enough from the front line, disrupting their ability to launch glide bombs.

The Ukrainian General Staff noted that Russia launched 431 glide bombs in the first 12 days of December, more than triple the number in the first 12 days of November.

“The sharp decline in the number of attacks by guided aerial bombs can be explained by Ukraine’s permission to strike deep into Russia with Western long-range missiles,” wrote Ukrainian news outlet Agentstvo News, quoting OSINT analyst Oliver Alexander. “

“According to him, the threat of the use of ATACMS forced Russian aviation to move Su-34 fighter-bombers to airfields more than 600 km (370 mi) from the front line – outside the zone of destruction of Western missiles, ” Agentsto said.

US President Joe Biden authorized deep strikes using ATACMS on November 17, and Ukraine made its first confirmed use of the missiles two days later. British and French Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles were used the next day.

Ukrainian General Staff data show that the number of Russian glide bombs has been steadily declining since late November.

According to the General Staff, the average daily number of glide bombs in November was 110. That dropped to about 40 in December, Agentstvo said.

“Russian forces are thus currently on track to launch only a third of the total number of glide bombs they plan to launch in November 2024,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.

Glide bombs matter because they have a very large blast radius and Ukraine credits them with helping Russia win the battle for the city of Avdiivka in February. From then on, Russian forces advanced slowly but steadily and reached a distance of 40 kilometers (25 mi) west of Avdiivka.

Nevertheless, US President-elect Donald Trump said he was against Biden’s decision.

“I don’t think they should have allowed them to fire missiles 200 miles into Russia. I think it was a bad thing,” Trump said in his first news conference since the election. “I thought it was a very stupid thing to do.”

Trump has said that he will try to reach a ceasefire agreement in 2025.

The ATACMS decision “removed a potential bargaining chip that President-elect Donald Trump could use in future peace talks,” Demetrius Andrew Grimes, a former US Navy officer, aviator and diplomat who supports Trump, told Al Jazeera. will be.”

Some have criticized Biden for granting permission too late.

“The prolonged conflict gave Russia time to move some of its logistics further afield,” said Minna Allender, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs. “It is nevertheless important that Ukraine is now able to strike into Russian territory, because they can finally fight in a way that makes sense,” she told Al Jazeera.

Grimes believed that this decision “increases Russia’s readiness to gain an edge on the battlefield as the Russians now face the threat of long-range attacks on critical military infrastructure”.

ISW estimated that Russia doubled its rate of advancement in November compared to October, claiming an average of 27 square km (10 square miles) per day. ISW said it planned to expropriate a total of 2,356 square km (910 sq mi) of Ukrainian land in 2024.

Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the armed forces for “liberating” 189 settlements this year during a meeting of the Defense Ministry’s board on Monday. He said it had been “a historic year in achieving the goals of the special military operation”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the latest use of ATACMS occurred on the morning of December 11, when six missiles attacked Russian airspace in Taganrog, which “will be met with a response.”

Russian air war

Russia has carried out liberal airstrikes against Ukraine’s cities as well as its military.

Russia on Friday launched its largest-ever ISW airstrike against Ukraine, involving 94 missiles and 193 kamikaze drones.

Ukraine shot down 81 missiles and 80 drones, disabling another 105 electronic warfare systems, but Ukrainian energy operator DTEK reported heavy damage to five of its plants.

“Each missile targeted a specific energy facility,” Zelensky said. “The timing of the strike was to coincide with the severe cold. “This is a deliberate, cynical Russian terror aimed specifically at our people.”

Zelensky told a joint expeditionary force meeting that Ukraine needs 12-15 air defense systems to protect its skies, up from the five promised at the Washington NATO summit in July, increasing the number for the second time in two weeks. Has happened.

On December 10, Zelensky asked for 10–12 Patriot systems, up from the minimum of seven sought in April. Their latest data does not specifically mention the Patriot system.

In a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Zelensky ruled out “just a pause in hostilities… just something temporary or indefinite”. We need a strong common position from all partners – and we need real peace.