Large group of Russian and North Korean forces prepared to retake Russia’s Kursk region from Ukraine

Ukrainian service members drive an armored military vehicle past a destroyed border crossing point with Russia in the Sumy region on August 14, 2024.
CNN | Published November 12, 2024

Russia has amassed a large force of tens of thousands — including recently arrived North Korean troops — to carry out an assault on the Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk region expected in the coming days, a US official told CNN on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that about 11,000 North Korean soldiers are in the region, where Ukraine’s three-month military incursion into Russian territory has stalled.

The New York Times reported Sunday that some 50,000 Russia and North Korean troops are set to take part in the assault.

CNN has reached out to the Ukrainian government for comment.

A Ukrainian commander told CNN Sunday that North Korean troops were taking part in direct combat operations in Kursk, as well as defensive operations in the neighboring Belgorod region of Russia and in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories.

“Mostly, the tasks are defined as the second echelon of defense. In the Kursk region, these are direct combat operations,” he said, adding that among the personnel were specialist artillerymen and snipers.

“These groups will be directly involved in combat operations in the short term on the territory of Ukraine. They are highly likely to emerge in the occupied territories of Ukraine as well,” the commander said.

He said the North Korean troops were a “significant resource” for Russia’s war on Ukraine, as even those being deployed defensively would free up Russian troops for assault operations elsewhere and would themselves eventually be used in direct combat.

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SOURCE: www.cnn.com

RELATED: Russia masses tens of thousands of troops for offensive to retake Kursk, Ukraine says

The Kremlin on Monday denied that President-elect Donald Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin after his election victory.

A Russian serviceman carries an artillery shell to be fired in the Kursk region on Saturday.Sergey Bobylev / Sputnik via AP
NBC NEWS | Published November 12, 2024

Russia has massed “tens of thousands of troops” as part of a major effort to retake land in its Kursk region that was seized by Ukraine, according to the Commander-in-Chief of Kyiv‘s armed forces.

Oleksandr Syrskyi said Monday that Russian forces were “trying to dislodge our troops and advance deep into the territory we control” in Kursk, where Ukraine’s military has occupied swathes of territory since a surprise August incursion that turned the tables in the two-and-a-half-year war.

The push to retake territory comes as the two sides exchanged an intense wave of drone attacks that Ukraine said killed eight people, and after President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory, which could upend the U.S. approach to the war. The Kremlin on Monday denied that Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine and its allies have warned a counteroffensive in Kursk was likely for weeks, and said that thousands of North Korean troops were among the force assembled by the Kremlin in Kursk.

“The importance of this operational area cannot be underestimated given the number of enemy troops concentrated there,” Syrskyi said in a post on Telegram, adding that soldiers were engaged in combat in the area. “If it were not for the steadfastness of our soldiers, these tens of thousands of enemies from the best Russian assault units would have stormed our positions” elsewhere on the front lines, he said.

 

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SOURCE: www.nbcnews.com

 

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