Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Friday that North Korean troops were back on the front line in Russia’s Kursk region, after reports Moscow had withdrawn them due to heavy losses.<\/p>\n
More than 10,000 soldiers from the reclusive state were sent to Russia last year to help it fight back a shock Ukrainian offensive into the border region, according to South Korean and Western intelligence.<\/p>\n
A Ukrainian military spokesman told AFP last Friday that Kyiv had not encountered activity or clashes with North Korean troops for three weeks.<\/p>\n
“There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas… the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again,” Zelensky said in his evening address.<\/p>\n
The Ukrainian leader said a “significant number” of opposing troops had been “destroyed”.<\/p>\n
“We are talking about hundreds of Russian and North Korean soldiers,” he added.<\/p>\n
Kyiv captured dozens of border settlements in its Kursk assault six months ago, the first time a foreign army had crossed into Russian territory since World War II.<\/p>\n
The North Korean deployment, never officially confirmed by Moscow or Pyongyang, was supposed to reinforce the Russian army and help them expel Ukraine’s troops.<\/p>\n
But as of February Ukraine still holds swathes of Russian territory, something Zelensky sees as a bargaining chip in any future negotiations with Moscow.<\/p>\n
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n
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