Zelenskiy reports heavy Russian, North Korean troop losses in Russia’s Kursk By Reuters

(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in fighting in Russia’s southern Kursk region.

Ukrainian and Western assessments say about 11,000 North Korean troops are stationed in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces occupy strips of territory after staging a massive cross-border incursion in August.

In his late-night video address, Zelenskiy cited a report from top Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi that said fighting had taken place near the village of Makhnovka, not far from the Ukrainian border.

“In battles yesterday and today near a single village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,” Zelenskiy said. “This is significant.”

The president did not give specific details. A battalion can vary in size, but it usually consists of several hundred troops.

Reuters could not independently verify the president’s account.

Zelenskiy last week reported heavy North Korean losses in the Kursk region, saying his forces were not protected by Russian forces fighting alongside them.

He said the North Koreans were taking extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner and in some cases were being executed by their own forces.

In his latest remarks, Zelenskiy also said “fierce battles” were raging across the 1,000 km (620 miles) front line, with the situation most difficult near the city of Pokrovsk.

Russian forces, he said, “continue to spend large numbers of their own personnel on assaults.”

A Ukrainian military spokesman earlier said Pokrovsk remained the “hottest” frontline sector, with Russian troops launching new attacks near the city in an effort to bypass it from the south and cut supply routes to Ukrainian troops. .

The town, home to a mine that is the sole supplier of coking coal to Ukraine’s once-giant steel industry, had a pre-war population of about 60,000. Ukraine estimates that about 11,000 of them remain in the city.