Ukraine says it attacked North Korean troops in Kursk

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Ukrainian officials said Monday that their forces had fired on North Korean soldiers in combat for the first time since their deployment by Russia in the western Kursk region.

The clashes represent the first direct intervention by a foreign army since Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine began in 2022 and represent an expansion of what is already the largest land war in Europe since World War II.

“The first military units of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) have already come under fire in Kursk,” Andriy Kovalenko, Ukraine’s top anti-disinformation official on the National Security Council, said on Telegram. A senior Ukrainian intelligence official confirmed the military involvement to the Financial Times but declined to provide further details.

In Kiev, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he discussed with his visiting German counterpart Annalena Baerbock the “need for decisive action” in response to North Korea’s increasing involvement in the war.

“We call on Europe to be aware that DPRK troops in Europe are currently waging a war of aggression against a sovereign European state,” Sybiha said in a press conference.

The US criticized Russia and China at the UN Security Council on Monday for “shamelessly protecting” and encouraging North Korea. South Korea and the EU also condemned the operation and expressed concerns that Russia could reward North Korea with transfers of nuclear and ballistic technology.

Another senior Ukrainian official told the FT that Moscow had already provided Pyongyang with military technology and “money” to support its missile programs.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui in the Kremlin on Monday.

Choe brought a greeting from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and signed a deal with Putin in June that includes a mutual security assistance clause.

The foreign minister said last week that North Korea has “no doubt that the Russian army and people, under the wise leadership of the honorable Russian President Vladimir Putin, will surely achieve a great victory in their holy struggle to defend the sovereign rights and security of their country.” “condition”.

Putin has not confirmed the North Korean deployment, but last month he hinted at it, suggesting it fell under the treaty’s security provisions.

U.S. and South Korean officials last week confirmed Ukraine’s assessment that about 8,000 North Korean troops were sent to Kursk last month to help the Russian army push Ukrainian troops out of territory it has occupied since August. Senior Ukrainian intelligence officials told the FT that forces were in barracks about 50km from the Ukrainian border and were preparing to enter combat within “days”.

Kiev, Washington and Seoul said Pyongyang had sent around 12,000 troops to Russia for its war effort, including 500 officers and three generals. The remaining forces are in Russia’s far east, where they are being trained.

The White House said the North Koreans would become “legitimate military targets” if they entered the fight against Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on Monday that his military and foreign intelligence services had informed him that 11,000 North Korean soldiers were currently stationed in the Kursk region. “We are seeing an increase in North Korean forces, but unfortunately we are not seeing an increase in the response from our partners,” he said.

The senior Ukrainian intelligence official declined to provide details of the first military engagement between his country’s forces and the North Koreans. But he said it happened in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine controls about 600 square kilometers of territory, just over half of what it previously held after the summer raid that surprised Moscow.

Ukrainian military intelligence GUR said over the weekend that Russia had armed North Korean troops in Kursk with 60mm mortars, assault rifles, machine guns, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and shoulder-launched anti-tank rocket launchers. The GUR said some had also been equipped with night vision devices and thermal imaging cameras. Several hundred soldiers from the North Korean special forces are also stationed in Kursk.

Ukrainian officials and military analysts have raised questions about the quality and combat effectiveness of North Korean troops, describing most as inexperienced, low-ranking soldiers.

“We will know soon” how well they can fight, one of the officials said Monday.