Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today that Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in the Kursk region in southern Russia.
Ukraine and the West estimate that 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian troops seized part of the territory after an invasion in August.
In a video address at night, Zelensky quoted the report of the top Ukrainian commander Alexander Sirsky, who stated that fighting is taking place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border.
“In the fighting yesterday and today near only one village of Makhnovka in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost a battalion of North Korean infantry and Russian paratroopers,” Zelensky said. “That’s significant”.
The Ukrainian president did not provide specific details. A battalion usually consists of several hundred soldiers, although it can vary in size.
The Reuters agency states that it could not independently verify Zelenski’s allegations.
Zelensky also alleged last Sunday that North Korea had suffered heavy losses in the Kursk region, saying Russian troops were not protecting the Pyongyang forces they were fighting alongside.
He said the North Koreans are resorting to extreme measures to avoid their soldiers being captured and in some cases have executed soldiers who might be captured.
In his statement, Zelenski stated that “fierce fighting” is taking place along the 1,000-kilometer front and that the most difficult situation is near the town of Pokrovsko.
Russian forces, he said, “continue to expend enormous numbers of their personnel in attacks.”
Before the war, about 60,000 people lived in Pokrovsk, where the only coke mine for the former giant metal industry of Ukraine is located. Ukraine estimates that 11,000 people remain in the city.
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Source: www.vijesti.me
