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North Korean soldiers are preparing to imminently target Ukrainian forces in Kursk, according to Kyiv.
On Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement that on Friday, North Korean units had been “put on alert and ordered to wait further instructions” with some of Pyongyang’s troops being covertly transferred to the front by civilian trucks.
The statement follows concerns about North Korea’s contribution of thousands of troops to help Vladimir Putin‘s war effort in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv staged an incursion on August 6. Ukraine is struggling to hold onto the captured territory which could be used as leverage in negotiations over the conflict.
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“The command of the units of the North Korean army in Russia was ordered to interact with adjacent Russian units conducting hostilities in the Kursk region,” the Ukrainian General Staff statement said, according to a translation. It said that Moscow will likely “soon involve” North Korean soldiers in a direct assault.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that North Korean troops had already been engaged in combat with Kyiv’s forces and they had suffered losses.
Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters this week that Pyongyang’s troops were ready to fight in Kursk but had not yet taken part in combat operations. “We know that they are staged to engage in combat and we’re continuing to monitor that,” she said.
Newsweek has contacted the Pentagon and the Russian Defense Ministry for comment by email about the latest Ukrainian statement.
Kyiv made rapid gains in the early stages of the incursion, claiming to have captured around 530 square miles of Russian territory within weeks, including the town of Sudzha.
Amid warnings by Kyiv that Russia had sent 50,000 troops to the region, including North Korean personnel, Moscow has recaptured around 40 percent of the seized land. In its update on Friday, the Institute for the Study of War think tank (ISW) said that Russian forces had advanced in the main salient in Kursk Oblast.
It cited geolocated footage as showing gains south of Sudzha and Russia’s Defense Ministry said that the villages of Darino and Novoivanovka had also been recaptured.
However, the Russian military Telegram channel Anatoly Radov said that Russian forces’ slow rate of advance towards Guevo indicates that they will likely also struggle to recapture Sudzha quickly.
“Despite successes in Plekhovo and Novoivanivka, Ukrainian forces were still able to hold on to Martynovka…as well as Pogrebki,” added the post, referring to other settlements.