KYIV, Ukraine — North Korean troops are struggling heavy losses within the preventing in Russia’s Kursk area and dealing with logistical difficulties because of Ukrainian assaults, Ukraine’s army intelligence mentioned Thursday.
The intelligence company, identified beneath its acronym GUR, mentioned Ukrainian strikes close to Novoivanovka inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean items. It mentioned North Korean troops additionally confronted provide points and even shortages of ingesting water.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned this week that 3,000 North Korean troops have been killed and wounded within the preventing within the Kursk area. It marked the primary important estimate by Ukraine of North Korean casualties a number of weeks after Kyiv introduced that North Korea had despatched 10,000 to 12,000 troops to Russia to assist it within the virtually 3-year-old warfare.
The casualty disclosure got here because the Biden administration was urgent to ship as a lot army assist as potential to Ukraine earlier than President-elect Donald Trump takes over in January.
Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into the Kursk area in August, dealing a major blow to Russia’s status and forcing it to deploy a few of its troops from jap Ukraine, the place they have been urgent a slow-moving offensive.
The Russian military has been in a position to reclaim some territory within the Kursk area from Ukrainian forces however has failed to completely dislodge them.
On the similar time, Russia has sought to interrupt Ukraine’s resistance with waves of strikes with cruise missiles and drones in opposition to Ukraine’s energy grid and different infrastructure.
The newest assault on Christmas morning concerned 78 missiles and 106 drones, putting energy services, Ukraine’s air drive mentioned. It claimed to have intercepted 59 missiles and 54 drones and jammed 52 different drones.
On Thursday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 31 exploding drones. Twenty have been shot down and one other 11 didn’t attain their goal as a result of jamming, the Ukrainian air drive mentioned.
Russian forces additionally struck a central market in Nikopol within the Dnipropetrovsk area with a drone, wounding eight folks, in accordance with native authorities.