Ukraine Claims North Korean Soldiers Fighting For Russia Given Fake Military Documents

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The Ukrainian military said that North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military documents with Russian names and birth places, CNN reported. The statement comes amid claims from Ukraine that Russia is trying to not disclose the presence of foreign fighters in the conflict.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Ukraine's special forces said that they had killed three North Korean soldiers in Russia's Kursk region and seized their documents. The statement said that their military identification documents "lack all the stamps and photos, the patronymic names are given in the Russian manner, and the place of birth is signed as the Republic of Tuva," referring to a Russian region in southern Siberia bordering Mongolia, according to CNN report.

According to the statement, the signatures mentioned on the documents are in Korean, which "indicates the real origin of these soldiers." The statement said, "This case once again confirms that Russia is resorting to any means to hide its losses on the battlefield and conceal foreign presence."

US, Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence estimates indicate that the number of North Korean soldiers in Russia are between 11,000 to 12,000, some of whom have already engaged in combat operations alongside Russian forces to assist in recovering parts of Kursk that were taken during Ukrainian offensive in August, CNN reported.

According to US and Ukrainian officials, North Korean soldiers seem to have suffered heavy losses in the region. A senior US official said North Korea has seen "several hundred" casualties, both killed and injured, in Kursk since October.

Citing data from country's intelligence agency, a South Korean lawmaker said about 100 North Korean soldiers are believed to have been killed and almost 1,000 others were injured since being deployed to Kursk.

On December 17, Ukraine's special forces said that 50 North Korean soldiers were killed and 47 others were injured in three days while fighting alongside Russian soldiers in Kursk.

One Ukrainian unit reported that North Koreans, wearing different uniforms from the Russians, had launched infantry attacks using the "same tactics as 70 years ago", in an apparent reference to the Korean War, according to CNN report. However, Russia and North Korea has not acknowledged the presence of North Korean soldiers in Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of trying to hide the losses of North Korean troops on the battlefield, trying to use extreme tactics to disguise the identity of North Korean soldiers killed on hte battlefield.

In a statement shared on December 17 on X, Zelenskyy wrote, "Russians are trying... to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in battle." Alongside the statement, he shared a video purportedly showing Russian soldiers setting fire to the bodies of North Korean soldiers.

On December 15, a Ukrainian frontline drone unit shared a video purporting to show the bodies of more than 20 North Korean soldiers lined up in an icy field. The video's quality was not good enough to verify the identity of bodies shown in the video.