North Korean Troops Suffer Heavy Losses in Kursk Assaults, Replacements Needed - HUR

The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR) reported via Telegram that North Korean (DPRK) army units were having to be replenished after suffering significant losses during assaults in the Kursk region.

“During Dec. 14 and 15, 2024, in the areas of the villages of Plekhovo, Vorozhba, and Martynovka, in the Kursk region of Russia, units of the DPRK army suffered significant losses - at least 30 soldiers were killed or wounded,” the Dec. 16 report read.

According to Ukrainian intelligence assessments, at least three North Korean servicemen went missing near the village of Kurilovka. Due to these losses, it was necessary to reinforce assault groups with fresh personnel from the 94th Separate Brigade of the North Korean army to sustain combat operations in the Kursk region.

On Sunday, Dec. 15, the Ukrainian military released a video allegedly showing the bodies of the first North Korean soldiers killed in the war against Ukraine.

Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s “Birds of the Madyar” unit - currently the 414th Separate Regiment of Strike Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Ukrainian Marine Corps - shared a drone video on Telegram. The footage showed a pile of bodies, said to be of North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia in the Kursk region.

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According to Madyar, these soldiers were eliminated through the coordinated actions of FPV drone pilots from multiple unitss. The video shows more than two dozen bodies.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Defense Council, commented that total North Korean losses in the Russian army are much higher.

“They are now lying mixed with the Russians. Russian losses in the last two days of assaults are counted in the hundreds,” Kovalenko added.

President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier reported that Russia is deploying a “significant number” of North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region.

“The Russians include them in combined units and use them in operations in the Kursk region,” Zelensky said during his Dec. 14 address. He added that intelligence suggests North Koreans may be deployed in other areas of the front line.

“The losses among this category are already noticeable,” he said.

Zelensky’s statement came after a Dec. 14 morning update from Ukraine’s HUR, which reported that North Korean troops were expected to shortly begin assaulting Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.

Kovalenko cautioned against overstating their impact, saying they primarily bolster Russian troop numbers. He said that claims of their invincibility are “exaggerated,” adding, “They end, like everyone else.”

Junior Sergeant Stanislav Bunyatov of the 24th Aidar Assault Battalion indicated that North Korean troops had been engaged in combat for more than a week.

He described them as “well-trained, motivated, and cold-blooded,” with a strong command of Soviet-era weaponry. However, Bunyatov said their morale declines significantly when they start to take heavy casualties.

Russian commanders, he added, are using these troops in so-called meat assaults alongside Russian forces, underestimating their true combat capabilities.