North Koreans killed in Kursk while entering the Russian-Ukrainian war in earnest | News of the war between Russia and Ukraine

North Korean soldiers began returning home in body bags over the weekend, fighting alongside the Russians in large numbers for the first time.

“Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun using North Korean soldiers in their attacks. A large number of them,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.

Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) reported that the North Koreans were embedded with Russian marines and airborne forces – elite units – in Russia’s Kursk region, which Ukraine counter-invaded.

“At one location in the Kursk region, DPRK Army soldiers were actually covered by first-person drones,” GUR said in a statement, estimating total losses among Russians and the army. North Koreans number 200 on first day of engagement.

Al Jazeera was unable to confirm the toll.

Eight of them were reportedly killed when the North Koreans mistakenly opened fire on Chechen forces Akhmat battalion.

“The language barrier remains a difficult obstacle to management and coordination,” GUR said.

Many casualties occurred when North Korean forces attempted to recapture the Russian villages of Plekhovo, 2 kilometers (1.2 mi) from the Ukrainian border, and Vorogba and Martynovka, 10 kilometers (6.2 mi) inside Russia.

Ukraine’s Hungarian Birds, a Marine unit that specializes in unmanned aerial combat, released a video on Sunday that it claimed was of North Koreans killed in Kursk. The drone footage was hovering over a row of bodies with their faces covered.

The unit said in a statement: “After each wave, 4-5 Koreans arrive on vehicles, line up the mutilated bodies on tape, as in the video, and hide the faces of the deceased.”

Other Ukrainian units fighting in Kursk are proud to highlight success against the North Koreans, whose presence Kiev sees as a major escalation of the conflict.

The Faust unit of the Ukrainian special forces reported that 33 North Koreans were killed or wounded in Kursk using light drones.

“The Koreans, despite their strange walks in the fields, are trained to respond to drones and try to escape from them. They have not yet adopted the Russian tactic of freezing when a drone appears,” the unit wrote on its Telegram channel.

The 8th Regiment of Ukrainian Special Forces said it killed 50 North Korean soldiers in Kursk and wounded 47 between Saturday and Monday.

Separately, the 95th Police Airborne Brigade claimed to have killed more than 50 soldiers in two days and wounded 100 others. “However, we will not claim that these were Korean mercenaries until a Korean prisoner tells of his difficult fate,” the general wrote on his website. Her page on Telegram.

“After heavy losses, DPRK units began establishing additional observation posts to monitor drones,” Ukrainian military intelligence said on Tuesday.

Zelensky published that Russia is adopting horrific tactics to cover up the losses of North Korean soldiers.

“After the battles with our men, the Russians are also trying… to literally burn the faces of dead North Korean soldiers,” he wrote on Telegram.

He added: “There is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin. Even after their death, all that awaits them from Russia is ridicule.”

There were no statements from Russia or North Korea regarding these first losses of Korean mercenaries.

Operations on Russian territory

Ukraine also succeeded in carrying out acts of sabotage and assassination behind enemy lines.

Overnight from Friday to Saturday, saboteurs burned a Su-30 fighter jet on the runway of Krymsk Airport in Krasnodar Krai.

On the same night, Ukraine bombed a Steel Horse fuel production and offloading facility in Russia’s Oryol region, saying it was being used to supply the army.

The previous day, they burned and damaged three locomotives used to transport war materiel to Ukraine.

Ukraine also carried out two high-profile assassinations.

On Tuesday morning, the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU) was assassinated. General Igor KirillovHead of the Russian Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection Forces. Kirillov was blown up as he walked near a parked motorcycle loaded with explosives on Ryazansky Prospekt in the eastern suburbs of Moscow.

Kirillov was suspected of ordering the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian soldiers. His assistant, Major Ilya Polikarpov, was also killed.

On Thursday, Ukrainian agents were suspected of assassinating a prominent Russian military scientist.

Mikhail Chatsky was found dead in the Kuzminsky Forest Park in Moscow. He was reportedly involved in upgrading Kh-59 missiles to Kh-69 level, and writing artificial intelligence software for unmanned aerial vehicles for the Russian army.

Shatsky was head of software at March, Moscow Research and Design Bureau, a subsidiary of Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy agency.

ATACMS may be doing its job

Ukraine may also have succeeded in pushing Russian aircraft far enough away from the front line to hamper their ability to deliver glide bombs.

The Ukrainian General Staff noted that Russia launched 431 glide bombs in the first 12 days of December, after launching more than three times that number in the first 12 days of November.

“The sharp decline in the number of guided air bomb strikes can be explained by allowing Ukraine to strike deep into Russia with long-range Western missiles,” Ukrainian news outlet Agentstvo News wrote, citing OSINT analyst Oliver Alexander.

“According to him, the threat of using ATACMS forced Russian aviation to transfer Su-34 fighter-bombers to airfields more than 600 kilometers (370 miles) away from the front line – outside the Western missile destruction zone,” Agenstvo said.

US President Joe Biden authorized deep strikes using the ATACMS system on November 17, and Ukraine made its first confirmed use of the missiles two days later. British and French Storm Shadow/SCALP missiles were used the next day.

Ukrainian General Staff figures show that the numbers of Russian glide bombs have been steadily decreasing in the latter half of November.

The average daily number of slip bombs in November was 110, according to the General Staff. Agentstvo said that in December it dropped to about 40.

“Russian forces are currently on track to launch one-third of the total number of glide bombs fired by Russian forces in November 2024 this month,” said the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank.

Glide bombs are important because they have a massive blast radius, and Ukraine credits them with helping Russia win the Battle of Avdiivka in February. Since then, Russian forces have been advancing slowly but surely to form a 40-kilometre-long salient west of Avdiivka.

However, US President-elect Donald Trump said he was against Biden’s decision.

“I don’t think they should have allowed missiles to be launched 200 miles into Russia. I think that was a bad thing,” Trump said in his first post-election news conference. “I thought it was a very stupid thing to do.”

Trump said he would try to reach a ceasefire agreement in 2025.

Demetris Andrew Grimes, a former US Navy officer, pilot and diplomat who supports Trump, told Al Jazeera that the ATACMS decision “removed a potential bargaining chip that President-elect Donald Trump may have used in future peace negotiations.”

Some criticized Biden for granting permission Too late.

“The long hesitation gave Russia enough time to move some of its logistics away,” said Minna Alander, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “However, it is important that Ukraine is able to strike Russian territory now, where they can finally fight in a way that makes sense,” she told Al Jazeera.

Grimes believes the decision “has increased the urgency for Russia to secure its battlefield gains as the Russians now face the threat of long-range attacks on critical military infrastructure.”

The Institute for the Study of War estimates that Russia doubled its rate of advance in November compared to October, taking control of an average of 27 square kilometers (10 square miles) per day. ISW said it cleared a total of 2,356 square kilometers (910 square miles) of Ukrainian territory in 2024.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday thanked the armed forces for “liberating” 189 settlements this year, during a meeting of the Defense Ministry Council. He said it was “a historic year in achieving the goals of the special military operation.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the last use of ATACMS came on the morning of December 11, when six missiles attacked the Russian airport in Taganrog, a move to which “there will be a response.”

Russia’s war from the air

Russia launched naval air attacks on Ukrainian cities and its military forces.

Russia launched what the World War Institute called its largest-ever air attack against Ukraine on Friday, using 94 missiles and 193 suicide drones.

Ukraine shot down 81 missiles and 80 drones, overwhelming 105 more with electronic warfare systems, but Ukrainian energy company DTEK reported serious damage to five of its plants.

“Each missile targeted a specific energy facility,” Zelensky said. “The strike was timed to coincide with a cold snap. This is deliberate and cynical Russian terrorism specifically targeting our people.”

Zelensky said at a meeting of the Joint Intervention Force that Ukraine needs 12-15 air defense systems to protect its airspace, in addition to the five promised at the NATO summit in Washington in July, increasing the number for the second time in two weeks.

On December 10, Zelensky ordered between 10 and 12 Patriot systems, compared to the minimum of seven systems he requested in April. His last number does not refer to Patriot systems in particular.

In a meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Zelensky ruled out “just a cessation of hostilities… just something temporary or uncertain.” “We need a strong common position – from all partners – and we need real peace.”