North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk area are suffering heavy losses and being left unprotected by the Russian forces they’re combating alongside, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned on Friday (Dec 27).
Zelenskyy, in his nightly video deal with, mentioned Russian troops had been sending the North Koreans into battle with minimal safety and that North Koreans had been taking excessive measures to keep away from being taken prisoner.
“Their losses are important, very important. We see that neither the Russian navy nor their North Korean overseers have any curiosity in making certain the survival of those North Koreans,” he mentioned.
“Every little thing is about up in order that it’s unimaginable for us to seize them. There are situations by which they’re executed by their very own forces. Russians ship them into assaults with minimal safety.”
Ukrainian and Western intelligence reviews say there are about 12,000 North Korean troops in Kursk, a Russian area on the border the place Ukrainian forces are holding chunks of territory after staging an incursion in August.
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy mentioned greater than 3,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded.
He mentioned Ukrainian forces had managed to take a number of North Korean troopers as prisoners “however they had been severely wounded and it was not possible to save their lives“.
Zelenskyy mentioned the Korean individuals “shouldn’t be dropping their lives in battles in Europe”.
“That is one thing that Korea’s neighbours, together with China, can affect,” he added.
“If China is honest in its statements that the struggle mustn’t increase, it must exert acceptable stress on Pyongyang.”
White Home spokesperson John Kirby instructed reporters on Friday that North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the entrance strains of Russia’s struggle in opposition to Ukraine, with 1,000 troops killed or wounded within the final week alone in Kursk.
The quantity far exceeds the determine US officers have beforehand supplied.
“It’s clear that Russian and North Korean navy leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults in opposition to Ukrainian defences,” Kirby mentioned, describing the North Korean troops’ offensive as “massed, dismounted assaults”.
North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark, and Russia’s UN mission declined to remark.
In his feedback, Kirby mentioned outgoing US President Joe Biden would possible approve one other safety help bundle for Ukraine within the coming days.
