(Reuters) -Ukraine’s HUR military spy agency said on Monday that North Korean units fighting for Russia sustained losses of at least 30 soldiers killed or wounded around several villages on the front in Russia’s Kursk region over the weekend.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said at the weekend that Russia was using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults in Kursk region in southern Russia.
On Monday, he posted a video which he said showed Russian soldiers attempting to conceal the identities of dead North Korean servicemen by burning their faces.
The HUR statement is the first time Kyiv has claimed North Korean losses on this scale and in some detail. It said the casualties occurred around the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba and Martynovka in the Kursk region. It provided no evidence.
In Washington, Pentagon spokesperson Major General Pat Ryder said the United States had “indications” that North Korean forces had suffered casualties both killed and wounded.
It was not possible to independently verify the figures.
The Kremlin declined to comment on the Ukrainian assertion, referring the question to the Russian Defence Ministry which has made no comment on the subject.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side. Pyongyang initially dismissed reports about the troop deployment as “fake news”, but a North Korean official has said any such deployment would be lawful.
“Due to the losses, the assault groups are being replenished with fresh personnel, in particular from the 94th separate brigade of the DPRK army, to continue active combat operations in Kursk region,” the Ukrainian agency wrote.
The video posted by Zelenskiy appeared to show the bodies of North Korean soldiers lying dead in positions where they had been killed. It then showed what appeared to be soldiers setting fire to parts of their bodies on snowy ground.
“Russia is not only involving North Korean soldiers in assaults against Ukrainian positions but is also trying to conceal the losses of these individuals,” the president wrote.
“And now, after battles with our soldiers, the Russians are even attempting to … literally burn the faces of the dead North Korean troops. This is a demonstration of the contempt that now prevails in Russia, a contempt for everything humane.”
Reuters could not independently confirm the veracity of the video.
UKRAINIAN INCURSION
Ukrainian troops staged an incursion into Kursk region in August, but Russia’s military says its forces have regained much of the territory Kyiv’s troops initially captured.
Kyiv first said North Korean forces turned up in Kursk region in October and later reported unspecified clashes and casualties. It estimates there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, adding to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.
Ukraine, nearly a fifth of which is controlled by Moscow’s forces, has carved out an enclave in the Kursk region which its troops have been battling to hold as a potential bargaining chip for any potential peace negotiations.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, additional reporting by Ron Popeski; Editing by Alison Williams)
