Military units from North Korea (DPRK) have left Russian training grounds and entered the combat zone of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces for the first time, the Ukrainian military defence intelligence service (HUR) said on Thursday evening, the 24th of October, according to Politico and Reuters.
Ukrainian spies registered soldiers in Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday, the 23rd of October, said HUR.
HUR said that some 12 000 North Korean soldiers, including 500 officers and three generals, are already in Russia, training at five military bases and undergoing several weeks of training before being deployed in the war.
Moscow has appointed Russian Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov to oversee the training and adaptation of DPRK troops, Ukrainian military intelligence said.
“The troops sent by Pyongyang have been supplied with ammunition, bedding, winter clothing and footwear, as well as hygiene products. The Kremlin has high hopes for a North Korean component in the war against Ukraine and in the global confrontation with the West,” HUR said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of DPRK troops in his country and on Thursday at the BRICS summit, when asked by a journalist about satellite images showing North Korean troop movements, Putin replied:
“The images are a serious thing. If there are images, they reflect something.”
The Kremlin leader said that “it was not Russia’s actions that caused the escalation” and said that NATO officers and instructors were directly involved in the Ukrainian war and that it was the West that had escalated the Ukrainian crisis.
He also recalled that the Russian Parliament had ratified an agreement on a “comprehensive strategic partnership” with North Korea, in which both sides promise “mutual assistance in case of aggression”.
“Let’s see how this process goes”, Putin said.
While the Kremlin has insisted that Russia has the right to launch any military cooperation with North Korea and that any military activities are not directed “against third countries”, Pyongyang has dismissed reports that DPRK troops are preparing to join the Russian war as baseless rumours.
On Wednesday, the US said it had evidence that North Korea had sent 3 000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine.
A US official said the US had seen Ukrainian reports of North Korean troops in Kursk and was working to confirm them.