Neither Russian military nor their North Korean overseers have any interest in ensuring survival of North Koreans, he said.
Kyiv: North Korean troops deployed in Russia’s Kursk region are suffering heavy losses and being left unprotected by the Russian forces they are fighting alongside, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Russian troops were sending the North Koreans into battle with minimal protection and that North Koreans were taking extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner.
“Their losses are significant, very significant. We see that neither the Russian military nor their North Korean overseers have any interest in ensuring the survival of these North Koreans,” he said.
“Everything is set up so that it is impossible for us to capture them. There are instances in which they are executed by their own forces. Russians send them into assaults with minimal protection.”
Ukrainian and Western intelligence reports say there are about 12,000 North Korean troops in Kursk, a Russian region on the border where Ukrainian forces are holding chunks of territory after staging an incursion in August.
Earlier this week, Zelenskiy said more than 3,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded.
He said Ukrainian forces had managed to take a few North Korean soldiers prisoner “but they were severely wounded and it was not possible to save their lives”.
Zelenskiy said the Korean people “should not be losing their lives in battles in Europe. This is something that Korea’s neighbours, including China, can influence.”
“If China is sincere in its statements that the war should not expand, it needs to exert appropriate pressure on Pyongyang.”
Ukraine, North Korea, and Russia have had complex diplomatic relationships, especially given the geopolitical tensions and conflicts of recent years. Ukraine and Russia’s relations have been primarily defined by the ongoing war that began in 2014 with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and escalated into a full-scale invasion in 2022.
Ukraine, supported by Western nations, has condemned Russia’s actions as violations of international law, and their relationship has been characterized by open hostility and war. Diplomatic ties between the two countries have been virtually nonexistent, with Russia positioning itself as a major aggressor against Ukraine’s sovereignty.
On the other hand, North Korea has maintained an historically distant but somewhat pragmatic relationship with both Russia and Ukraine. North Korea, led by the Kim dynasty, has had closer ties with Russia, particularly in the realms of trade and military cooperation. While North Korea has not played a major role in the Russia-Ukraine war, it has expressed support for Russia’s stance against NATO and the West.
North Korea has also sought to exploit any opportunities to strengthen its relationship with Russia, especially as it faces international sanctions and isolation. However, North Korea’s diplomatic engagement with Ukraine has been limited and largely neutral, with few exchanges on high levels.
As of now, Ukraine and North Korea are far apart diplomatically, with North Korea leaning more toward Russia due to shared geopolitical interests. Ukraine, on the other hand, continues to seek support from Western nations, which complicates any potential future diplomatic relations with North Korea.