Ukraine has begun firing on North Korean troops inside Russia for the first time since they were deployed in the conflict, a Kyiv official said.
They added that Pyongyang’s units were struck in the Kursk region of Russia following a deployment that was criticised by the US and Ukraine’s other Western allies.
US, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence assessments say up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang to the war under a pact with Moscow.
Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, wrote on Telegram: “The first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region.”
He provided no further details.
Western governments had expected that the North Korean soldiers would be sent to Kursk border region in Russia, where a three-month-old incursion by the Ukrainian army is the first occupation of Russian territory since the Second World War and has embarrassed the Kremlin.
The North Korean troops, whose fighting quality and battle experience is unknown, are adding to Ukraine’s worsening situation on the battlefield.