North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia's army in Kursk 'withdrawn' after suffering heavy losses: Ukrainian official

North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine’s Kursk region have been withdrawn after suffering significant casualties, Ukrainian officials claim. Oleksandr Kindratenko, a spokesman for Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, told AFP on Friday that North Korean troops had not been seen on the front line for over three weeks.

“We believe that they have been withdrawn because of the heavy losses that were inflicted,” Kindratenko said, as reported by AFP.

Western, South Korean, and Ukrainian intelligence agencies previously stated that Pyongyang deployed over 10,000 soldiers to support Russia’s military efforts in the Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a cross-border offensive in August. The surprise Ukrainian operation captured dozens of settlements, marking the first time since World War II that a foreign army occupied Russian territory.

According to the New York Times, Ukrainian military commander Gen Oleksandr Syrsky estimated that nearly half of the North Korean troops deployed since November had been killed or injured. Ukrainian soldiers who fought against them described them as fierce but disorganised fighters, often left to operate without proper coordination with Russian forces.

CNN reported that some North Korean soldiers had resorted to near-suicidal tactics, detonating grenades rather than being captured by Ukrainian forces. Others had written pledges of allegiance to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on the battlefield.

Despite Moscow and Pyongyang never officially confirming North Korea’s troop deployment, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly highlighted their presence. In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Zelensky claimed that of the 12,000 North Korean troops in Kursk, about one-third had been killed.

The Kremlin has refused to comment on reports of North Korean withdrawals. “There are a lot of different arguments out there, both right and wrong. It’s not worth commenting on them every time,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to AFP.

Russia, however, has accused Ukrainian troops of committing atrocities in Kursk, claiming that 22 civilians were killed when Ukrainian forces occupied a Russian village, including eight women who were allegedly raped before being executed. Ukraine has dismissed these allegations.

Meanwhile, Russia continues to make gains elsewhere along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. On Friday, Moscow announced that its forces had captured Novovasylivka, a village in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, moving closer to the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Although Ukraine still holds parts of Kursk, the battle remains fluid. As per New York Times reports, while Ukrainian forces initially seized about 500 square miles of Russian territory in their summer offensive, Russian troops have since reclaimed nearly half of that land.

Despite the ongoing fighting, Kyiv sees its foothold in Kursk as a crucial bargaining tool in any future negotiations with Moscow. Zelensky recently praised Ukrainian troops for creating a "buffer zone" to protect northeastern Ukraine from further Russian advances.