Putin’s North Koreans now in combat zone, Kyiv says

KYIV — Military units from North Korea have left their Russian training grounds and entered the zone of combat between Russian and Ukraine forces for the first time, the military defense intelligence service of Ukraine (HUR) said in a Thursday evening statement.

Ukrainian spies recorded the troops in Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday, HUR said.

North Korean (DPRK) soldiers are being trained at five military sites in the far east of Russia, and will have to pass a training course lasting several weeks before being deployed in the war against Ukraine, HUR said. The United States confirmed Wednesday that thousands of North Koreans are training in Russia alongside Kremlin troops.

According to updated estimates from Kyiv, Pyongyang has transferred about 12,000 troops to Russia, including 500 officers and three army generals. Earlier this week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had already spotted North Korean army officers in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not confirmed or denied the presence of DPRK troops in his country. At the BRICS summit on Thursday, the Kremlin leader said it was “not Russia’s actions that led to the escalation,” and accused Western countries of helping Ukraine fight Moscow.

Instead, he recalled that Russia’s parliament had ratified an agreement on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with North Korea, signed by Putin in Pyongyang this summer, where both promise “mutual assistance in case of aggression” against one of the signatories.

“Let’s see how this process goes,” Putin said.

While the Kremlin has insisted that Russia has the right to enter into any military cooperation it wishes with North Korea, and that any military activity is not aimed “at third countries,” Pyongyang has dismissed the news that DPRK troops are primed to enter Russia’s war as groundless rumors.

Moscow has appointed Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov to monitor the training and adaptation of the DPRK troops, Ukraine’s military intelligence said.

“Soldiers sent by Pyongyang are equipped with ammunition, bedding, winter clothes and shoes, as well as hygiene products. The Kremlin has high hopes for the North Korean component in the war against Ukraine and the global confrontation with the West,” HUR said.

“I think they sent the officers because their officers would understand what was going on first and then send the contingent. Because, how to manage them, how to command them? I’m talking about language. I think these are serious difficulties,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Monday.