 "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. AP")
As the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war escalates, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Moscow has started using North Korean troops in “significant numbers”. Zelenskyy noted that this is the first time North Korean troops have been used to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces that are battling to hold on to their enclave in Russia’s Kursk region.
The confirmation from Zelenskyy came a day after reports emerged that North Korean troops had reportedly killed 300 Ukrainian soldiers before reclaiming a Russian village. In his wartime address on Saturday, Zelenskyy emphasised that the active use of North Korean troops is the new escalation in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and called for a global response.
“Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them,” the Ukrainian leader said in an evening address. He mentioned that North Koreans were being used in combined Russian units and only on the Kursk front for now. “We have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the front line," he added. Meanwhile, Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the reports that it is taking help from the North Korean troops.
North Korean troops engage in active clashes
Zelenskyy’s proclamation came a day after reports emerged that North Korean troops deployed to help Russia had reportedly killed some 300 Ukrainian soldiers before reclaiming a Russian village. Pro-Russian Telegram channel Romanov Light reported that North Korean soldiers stormed the Ukrainian-held village of Plyokhovo in Kursk “like a hurricane," and eliminated Ukrainian forces deployed in the region, NK News.
Vladimir Romanov, who runs the channel, claimed that the North’s special forces carried out the operation and clashes lasted for 2 hours. However, the North Korean troops did not take any prisoners in the latest clashes.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed clashes between Ukrainian and North Korean troops. Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said the North Koreans had taken losses, but provided no numbers, Reuters. “The Russians are counting on numbers and are trying to carry out assault operations with the help of the Koreans when the task of the Koreans is to run under the blows of our forces and occupy certain areas,” Kovalenko wrote on Telegram.
Just weeks before US President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House, the Ukrainian leader asked the West to put it into a stronger position and bridled at fears of escalation by Russia and North Korea. “In essence, Moscow has dragged another state into this war, and to the fullest extent possible. And if this is not escalation, then what is the escalation that so many have been talking about?” Zelenskyy exclaimed.