Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported on Monday that over 3,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded in Russia’s Kursk region. He also issued a warning that Pyongyang may deploy additional personnel and military equipment to support Moscow’s forces.
“There are risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment to the Russian army,” Zelenskiy said on X after receiving a report from his top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi.
“We will have tangible responses to this,” he added.
The estimate of North Korean losses is higher than that provided by Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), which said on Monday at least 1,100 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.
The assessment was in line with a briefing last week by South Korea’s spy agency, which reported some 100 deaths with another 1,000 wounded in the region.
Zelenskiy said he cited preliminary data. Reuters could not independently verify reports on combat losses.
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.
According to Ukrainian and allied assessments, North Korea has sent around 12,000 troops to Russia.
Some of them have been deployed for combat in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine still holds a chunk of land after a major cross-border incursion in August.
JCS added that it has detected signs of Pyongyang planning to produce suicide drones to be shipped to Russia, in addition to the already supplied 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers.
Kyiv continues to urge its allies for a stronger response, emphasizing that the transfer of military expertise and technologies between Moscow and Pyongyang poses a significant global threat. “For the world, the cost of restoring stability is always far greater than the cost of effectively pressuring those who destabilize the situation and destroy lives,” President Zelenskyy stated.
Team BharatShakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
