TAIPEI, Taiwan – Ukrainian forces are holding off nearly 50,000 troops, including 11,000 North Koreans, in Russia’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, confirming U.S. media reports that Russia had amassed a large force including the North Koreans to push Ukrainian invaders off Russian soil.
The deployment of the North Koreans to help Russia fight its war against Ukraine has raised fears in the West and in South Korea of a dangerous escalation of Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
Ukrainian troops “continue to hold back” the “nearly 50,000-strong enemy group” in Kursk, Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram on Monday after receiving a briefing from General Oleksandr Syrskyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region on Aug. 6 and have captured more than two dozen settlements there, Ukraine says.
While Russia has managed to reclaim some settlements, the front line has seen little change in recent months.
The New York Times, citing U.S. and Ukrainian officials, reported on Sunday that the Russian military had assembled about 50,000 soldiers, including North Koreans, to launch an assault to reclaim territory in Kursk.
Similarly, CNN quoted an unidentified U.S. official as saying Russia has gathered a “large force of tens of thousands” of troops and North Korean soldiers to participate in an imminent assault.
The Ukraine president previously said that North Korean troops fighting against Ukrainian forces were taking casualties in Kursk.
“Currently, 11,000 North Korean soldiers are present on Russian territory near the Ukrainian border, specifically in Kursk Oblast,” he said at a press conference at the European Political Community summit in Budapest last Thursday.
“Some of these troops have already taken part in combat operations against Ukrainian forces, and there are already casualties,” he added, without providing further information on the number of casualties.
The Kremlin has not commented on the presence of North Korean troops on its territory. At a meeting of the U.N. Security Council last week, Russia declined to answer questions from the United States about its deployment of North Korean troops.
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For years, China was widely seen as isolated North Korea’s sole major ally, but its ties with Russia have recently grown much closer.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a landmark treaty on a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” on June 19 in Pyongyang after summit talks, which includes a mutual defense assistance clause that applies in the case of “aggression” against either of the signatories.
Russia’s state news agency TASS reported on Saturday that Putin signed a law to ratify the treaty with the North, which includes a mutual defense clause in the event of “aggression” against either signatory.
Putin mentioned on Thursday the possibility of Russia and North Korea holding joint military exercises. He did not comment on the reports about North Korean troops in Russia but noted that the agreement with North Korea did not contain anything new but restored an arrangement that they had during the Soviet era.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also has signed off the treaty, the North’s state media reported on Tuesday.
The treaty will take effect from the day both sides exchange ratification instruments, said the Korean Central News Agency.
North Korea has supplied Russia with large quantities of weapons for its war in Ukraine, particularly missiles and artillery shells, though both countries deny it.
Edited by Mike Firn.