Russian forces, including North Korean troops, lost "up to a battalion of infantry" in fighting around one village in the southern Kursk region in roughly two days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.
Why It Matters
An estimated 10,000 and 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to southern Russia and have been fighting Ukrainian forces there for months.
Kyiv launched a surprise offensive over the border into Kursk in August 2024, and still holds roughly half of the land it captured in the late summer.
What To Know
In battles over Friday and Saturday, Moscow "lost up to a battalion of infantry, including North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers," the president said in his evening address, citing a report from his army chief Oleksander Syrskyi. The size of a battalion can vary, but could be as many as 1,000 soldiers.
The fighting was concentrated around Makhnovka, a village southeast of the Ukrainian-held border town of Sudzha, Zelensky said.
NATO described the appearance of North Korean soldiers as a "significant escalation" in the conflict and a "dangerous expansion" of Europe's largest land conflict since World War II.
Zelensky's comments came just ahead of an apparent new Ukrainian push in Kursk on Sunday.
Russia's Defense Ministry said Kyiv "launched a counterattack" at around 9 a.m. Moscow time (1 a.m. ET) on Sunday "in order to halt the advance of Russian troops" in the Kursk village of Berdin, a village northeast of Sudzha.
Ukraine has held Sudzha since the early days of the August offensive, and details of this operation are still emerging.
Zelensky said on Saturday evening that Syrskyi had informed him that "in battles today and yesterday near just one village—Makhnovka in the Kursk region—the Russian army lost up to a battalion of infantry, including North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers."
On Monday, the Pentagon said it agreed with an earlier White House assessment that roughly 1,000 North Korean soldiers had been killed or injured in Kursk so far. Zelensky had said on December 23 that Pyongyang had already sustained 3,000 casualties in Kursk.
Syrskyi said on Wednesday that Ukrainian forces would continue to target Russian forces in Kursk, adding: "It doesn't matter what passports they have: Russian or North Korean."
Who Said What
Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in a post to Telegram on January 1 that Russian losses in Kursk had surpassed 38,000 casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: "Specifically, in battles today and yesterday near just one village—Makhnovka in the Kursk region—the Russian army lost up to a battalion of infantry, including North Korean soldiers and Russian paratroopers."
What Happens Next
As battles continue in Kursk, and Russia attempts to roll back Ukrainian control in the region, the reported casualty counts of both Russian and North Korean soldiers, as well as Ukrainian troops, will very likely climb.
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