Russian paramilitary soldiers were accidentally attacked and killed by North Korean troops during a recent friendly fire attack, according to Ukrainian officials.
In a statement published on Saturday, the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) detailed how Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) soldiers recently assisted Russian forces in the Kursk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials estimate that about 11,000 North Korean personnel are stationed in Russia.
“The aggressor state Russia has begun to use North Korean soldiers in offensive operations in the Kursk region, in particular as part of the combined units of the Marines and Airborne Troops of the Russian Armed Forces,” the statement said.
“The North Korean forces are suffering sanitary and irreversible losses as a result of a successful incendiary attack by the Ukrainian security and defense forces,” the DIU added. “In particular, at one of the positions in the Kursk region, the North Korean army was effectively attacked by FPV drones.”
A view of the dragon’s teeth and barbed wire built to create a defense line around Sumy, as seen in Sumy, Ukraine on November 6, 2024. (Oksana Parafeniuk for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
The DIU noted that in a recent incident, the language barrier between Russian and North Korean forces ultimately led to the deaths of eight soldiers from the Achmat Special Forces, a paramilitary group in Chechnya.
“When deploying North Korean forces on the battlefield, the language barrier remains problematic in controlling and coordinating actions,” the statement said.
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Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov (L) meets with his North Korean counterpart No Kwang Chol (R) in Pyongyang, North Korea on November 29, 2024. (RUS Ministry of Defense/Vadim Savitsky / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Due to this problem, North Korean soldiers opened ‘friendly fire’ on the vehicles of the so-called Akhmat battalion,” the DIU added. “As a result, they killed eight Kadyrovite soldiers.”
This latest development in the Russian-Ukrainian war came as the Russian army pressed on to undermine the Ukrainian electricity grid, taking advantage of the freezing temperatures to destroy the country’s largest energy company.
This photo taken on October 18, 2023, shows North Korean soldiers waving their national flags as they welcome Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after he lands at the airport in Pyongyang. (KIM WON JIN/AFP via Getty Images)
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In one of the largest mass attacks ever on Ukraine’s power grid, Russian forces fired nearly 100 missiles, including cruise missiles, and 200 drones across western Ukraine on Friday. according to the Kiev Independent.
Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall contributed to this report.
