Pyongyang is now helping Moscow direct attacks into Ukraine, Ukrainian officials say.
Ukraine’s General Staff has released a recording on Oct. 16 of what it says are North Korean soldiers in Kursk Oblast, Russia, guiding strikes into Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast, in what it calls the first publicly released evidence of their use to attack Ukraine.
“North Korean UAV operators adjusted the fire of multiple launch rocket systems against Ukrainian positions,” the General Staff wrote.
Based on the General Staff’s explanation, it appears to be footage recovered from a downed reconnaissance drone that the North Korean soldiers were piloting over Sumy Oblast.
Ukrainian troops took several towns in southern Kursk in an incursion that began in August 2024, an attack that exposed major gaps in Russia’s defenses. Russia then turned to North Korea.
Some 11,000 North Korean soldiers made their way to Kursk in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for aid. Ukrainian, South Korean and Western intelligence first documented these soldiers in October 2024.
Russia used these North Korean soldiers as shock troops, with nearly half of them reportedly dying in counterassaults to restore lost Russian territory before Ukrainian forces retreated from Kursk Oblast entirely in May. It subsequently became a staging ground for Russian attacks on northwestern Ukraine, including continuous airstrikes and ground assaults on villages near the border in Sumy Oblast in recent months, though the [Russian bid for Sumy](Sumy is a region of Ukraine’s northwest bordering Kursk. Despite continuous Russian assaults and air strikes since a mid-summer ramp-up, Sumy has remained Ukrainian.) has nearly collapsed.
The video and the General Staff’s explanation for it mark a first. It would be the first public evidence of North Korean soldiers attacking Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
“Due to critical manpower losses and the failure of the offensive operation in Sumy Oblast, Russian occupation forces continue to involve North Korean troops in active combat operations,” wrote the General Staff.
Facing international isolation, Russia and North Korea have deepened ties since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Pyongyang has supplied ammunition and ballistic missiles to Moscow, and Russia has, in turn, helped Pyongyang develop submarines and Shahed drones.
Read also: Russia to help North Korea produce Shahed-type drones, Ukraine’s spy chief says
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