The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claims that the Ukrainian military has eliminated an entire battalion of North Korean and Russian soldiers who fought in Russia’s Kursk region, Reuters reports.
The battalion is said to have been made up of Russian paratroopers and North Korean ground troops.
“In fighting yesterday and today near just one village, Makhnovka, in the Kursk region, the Russian army lost up to a battalion of North Korean infantry soldiers and Russian paratroopers,” Zelenskyy stated in his daily update.
“Significant”
A battalion can vary in number, but usually consists of hundreds of soldiers, according to the news agency.
“This is significant,” Zelenskyy stated further in the speech.
According to previous estimates, North Korea has so far sent approximately 11,000 troops to support Russia’s offensive war.
Western observers describe it as Putin turning to North Korea because Russia is in dire need of more soldiers for the war.