Russia is forming a special battalion consisting of up to 3,000 North Koreans to help push Ukraine’s forces out of Kursk amid a manpower shortage on the front lines due to heavy casualties, Ukraine’s media reported.
The North Koreans will form part of the “Special Buryat Battalion,” organized within the 11th separate airborne assault brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, said The Kyiv Post, citing sources in Ukraine’s Military Intelligence.
“[Vladimir] Putin is doing everything possible to delay and avoid the decision to conduct a new full-fledged wave of mobilization on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the source said.
The battalion is expected to include up to 3,000 North Korean troops and is currently being supplied with small arms and ammunition, the newspaper reported, adding that it may be deployed near Sudzha and Kursk, close to the Ukrainian border.
Separately, The Kyiv Independent, an English-language Ukrainian online newspaper, reported on Tuesday that North Korea had sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia to support its war efforts against Ukraine, citing a Western diplomat familiar with the situation.
However, the diplomat noted that it remains unclear what type of soldiers were sent or what roles they were expected to fulfill.
Meanwhile, Ukraine broadcaster Suspilne reported on Tuesday that 18 North Korean soldiers had deserted from their posts in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk administrative regions, close to the Ukrainian border. The soldiers reportedly fled around 7 kilometers (4 miles) from the border, according to unnamed intelligence officials.
While the reason for their desertion is still unknown, the Russian military is actively searching for the missing soldiers. According to the sources, Russian commanders are trying to conceal the desertions from their superiors.
Radio Free Asia has not been able to independently verify the reports.
In an online press briefing on Tuesday, White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said that he could not confirm the reports, but called them “concerning.”
“This, if true, would represent a significant deepening of that relationship [between North Korea and Russia]. It would also, if true, indicate what I think can only be classified as a new level of desperation by Putin as he continues to try to make progress in Ukraine,” Kirby said.
“If it’s true, it’s coming at a time when Russia continues to suffer extraordinary … in fact, I would go so far as to say historic levels of casualties in a modern conflict … more than 1,000 casualties per day just in recent months.”
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller also expressed concerns over media reports on the possibility of North Korea sending troops to Ukraine in support of Russia.
“We are concerned by reports of DPRK soldiers fighting on behalf of Russia,” said Miller on Tuesday, referring to North Korea by its official name the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“If that’s true, it would mark a significant increase in the relationship between those two countries, the relationship that you have seen develop over the past several months,” he noted.
“It would also indicate a new level of desperation by Russia as it continues to suffer significant casualties on the battlefield.”
North Korea and Russia have moved noticeably closer over the past year or more amid widespread suspicion that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.
Citing his country’s military intelligence, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Russia plans to involve North Korea directly in the full-scale war against Ukraine in coming months.
Zelensky’s statement came after media reports that several North Korean officers had been killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in Russian-occupied territory near the city of Donetsk on Oct. 3.
South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-Hyun told lawmakers in early October that North Korea was likely planning to send troops to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Oct. 10, however, dismissed the claim as “fake news.”
Edited by Mike Firn.
By：RFA
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