Kim Jong Un's North Korea fighting for Russia in Kursk? Top Russian general hails their ‘professionalism'
For the first time since striking a deal with Kim Jong Un in 2024, Moscow has confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces in the Kursk region. In August 2024, Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region, capturing a stretch of territory.
A top Russian general confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting alongside Russian forces in Kursk, praising their 'heroism and professionalism' in helping to push out Ukrainian forces.
Valery Gerasimov, chief of Russia's General Staff, praised North Korean officers and soldiers for their role in Kursk, saying they demonstrated 'high professionalism, fortitude, courage, and heroism' while carrying out combat missions 'shoulder to shoulder' with Russian troops, Reuters reported.
According to reports, North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops to fight in the Kursk region. While Russia never confirmed or denied North Korean presence in Kursk, Ukraine has often claimed that Kim Jong Un's military was supplying artillery shells, rocket systems, thousands of troops and ballistic missiles to Russia.
Meanwhile, Valery Gerasimov has also claimed that Russia has reclaimed the Kursk region – a claim denied by Kyiv.
Congratulating the Russian military for taking Kursk back from surprise Ukrainian incursion on 1,300 square kilometers, Vladimir Putin said, 'The complete defeat of our enemy along Kursk's border region creates the right conditions for further successes for our troops and in other important areas of the front.'
To this, Ukraine has said, 'The statements of representatives of the high command of the aggressor country about the alleged end of hostilities in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation are not true.'
'The defensive operation of the Ukrainian Defense Forces in certain areas in the Kursk region continues. The operational situation is difficult, but our units continue to hold designated positions and carry out assigned tasks, while inflicting effective fire damage on the enemy with all types of weapons, including using active defense tactics,' Ukraine said.
First Published: 28 Apr 2025, 05:38 AM IST
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Engineers sought to work out how to best integrate tanks into a working battlefield scenario - contemplating everything from a tiny vehicle to a giant one "with 18 turrets" before settling on the version used in World War drones, "we are in the phase of figuring that out, and things are changing so rapidly that what works today might not work tomorrow," he the attack affects Russian operations in UkraineThe Tu-95 bombers hit by Ukraine are "effectively irreplaceable" because they're no longer in production, said Hinz, the IISS expert. Ukraine said it also hit an A-50 early warning and control aircraft, similar to the West's AWACS planes, that coordinate aerial attacks. Russia has even fewer of these."Whichever way you cut the cake for Russia, this requires expense," said Thomas Withington of the Royal United Services Institute in London. "You can see the billions of dollars mounting up,"Russia must repair the damaged planes, better protect its remaining aircraft and improve its ability to disrupt such operations, he said. Experts also suggested the strikes could force Moscow to speed up its programme to replace the underscoring Russian vulnerabilities, it's not clear if it will mean reduced airstrikes on has focused on trying to overwhelm Ukraine's air defences with drones throughout the war, including the use of decoys without payloads. On some nights last month, Moscow launched over 300 drones."Even if Ukraine was able to damage a significant portion of the Russian bomber force, it's not entirely clear that the bomber force was playing a linchpin role in the war at this point," Lee air force data analysed by AP shows that from July 2024 through December 2024, Russia used Tu-22M3s and Tu-95s 14 times against Ukraine but used drones almost every operation might temporarily reduce Russia's ability to launch strategic missile attacks but it will probably find ways to compensate, Lee said.
