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The North Korean soldiers fighting against Ukraine have disappeared from the battlefield, South Korea National Intelligence Service said this week.
“There are no signs from mid -January showing the North Korean troops located in the Russian Kursk region participating in a battle,” NIS said on Tuesday.
Approximately 11,000 North Koreans were located in Kursk last December to help Russia fight Ukrainian counter -invasion, launched last August.
A NIS statement has confirmed a recent New York Times report, which has cited the heavy casualties among North Koreans as a reason for their redistribution.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said about 4,000 North Korean soldiers were injured or killed – about one -third of the corpus. Nis put the number 3000.
Ukrainian commanders in the field have reported that the Russian forces used the North Koreans to attack support and that they were ordered to end their own lives rather than to be captured or to be shot by their own country.
Al Jazeera failed to check the allegations independently.
The North Korean absence may be temporary regrouping.
Zelenski told the Associated Press that there are information that 25,000 additional North Korean troops are on the way to Kursk.
Experts also have told Al Jazeera that North Korean reinforcements are likely.
Russian troops also suffer from high losses.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine evaluated the Russian victims of 48,240 last month, the top of the highest monthly percentage of casualties in almost three years of war, only a little behind December.
About one -third of these losses were inflicted around Pokrovsk, the Eastern Ukrainian city in Donetsk that Russia has begun an intense battle to capture.
“In January this year alone, our soldiers neutralized over 15,000 invaders (in Pokrovsk), of which about 7,000 were killed,” said Ukrainian Commander -in -Chief Alexander Syirski on Saturday.
These casualties are being made to reduce return, the Washington Trust -based Washing Institute reported.
Russia has won 498 km (192 square miles) territory in the war last month, assessed ISW, compared to 593 km (229 square miles) in December.
“Approximately 100 square kilometers (29 square miles) reduce the seized territory between December 2024 and January 2025, combined with a similar percentage of monthly casualties, shows that Russian forces accept the same high level of losses, although they achieve more A small territorial territorial forces of progress in the near future, “ISW said.
Earlier ISW estimated that it would take Russia about two more years of war to complete the conquest of Donetsk alone.
Ukraine's challenges on the battlefield
Ukraine also suffers from a shortage of labor and, according to the messages, has stopped efforts to build up to 12 new brigades, instead uses its reserves to fill losses in existing units.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine regularly discuss war losses. But this week, Zelenski said the army of Ukraine had lost 45 100 soldiers on the battlefields.
The Ukrainska Pravda (UP) website on Tuesday announced that Ukraine's armed forces are preparing to filter 50,000 reservists in brigades fighting on front lines to replace losses.
This number will increase the front parts by Peta, according to the New York Times, which reports troops on the front line of Ukraine to a quarter million.
“We have to do this to start the rotation mechanism,” an unnamed source told UP. “The resources currently being trained in training centers are sufficient only for minimal replenishment of units, not for the full support of the combat component.”
Russia also comes home for its workforce. He seems to be trying to surround the Pokrovsk to make his defenders withdraw.
Victor Tregubov, a spokesman for the group of forces in Pokrovsk, told Teleton this week that the Russian strategy is to bypass the city to avoid an urban battle. “We are talking about covering the city, starting south and walking clockwise – south, southwest, west, etc.,” he said.
The Russian forces tried large -scale mechanized maneuvers at the beginning of the war, but were sunk by vigorous protection.
ISW believed that Russia performed its first successful environment when a year ago took over Avdiivka, a city in Donetsk.
Since then, ISW believes that he has tried to recreate the movements of the tongs about 20-30 km (12-19 miles) and can adopt a strategy for simultaneous, coordinated, slow movements of pins through the Eastern Front, modeled in the capture of Avdievka.
For example, Russia claims that last week it is making progress to the environment of Casaansk, a city in Harciv, as a courtyard, a statement that has not yet been confirmed by geoloked staff. At the southern end of the front, Russia managed to envelop and seize Velina Novosilka last month.
The war in the air
Russia has continued to bomb Ukrainian civilians over the past week, as has been done throughout this war.
Zelenski said Russia launched 660 Shaheed drones, nearly 50 rockets and 760 sliding bombs in Ukraine during the week ending on Sunday.
The oldest attack came on Saturday night.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said Russia has launched a combined blow across the country, featuring 46 missiles of different species and 123 Shahed Kamikaze drones.
Ukraine's air protection has captured or destroying everyone but six of the drones and a number of rockets, but a rocket hit a residential building in Poltava, killing 14 people and wounds 22, Zelenski said.
The rocket destroyed all five floors on one side of a residential building, which lived about 86 people.
Zelenski said at his evening address: “It was just a Russian rocket, carrying so much pain, suffering and loss. That is why Ukraine – and true peace – require guarantees. “
Ukraine also continued its campaign to break Russian military production and energy sources.
On Friday, his drones hit the Lukoil refinery in Volgograd, lit him. The General Staff described it as “one of the ten largest oil refineries in Russia”, processing 6 percent of all crude oil produced in the country.
It is clear that there were other goals, as the Russian Defense Ministry said it had downloaded 49 drones in seven regions.
On Monday, Ukrainian drones again hit the refinery in Volgograd, this time damaging its central processor, as well as hit the Astrakhan gas condensation installation, which is reported that the Special Operations (SSO) can process 12 billion tons a year, reporting that they are stopping production.
Ukraine is also aimed at Russian commanding bunkers and air protection.
On Sunday, the southern forces of Ukraine struck and destroy a BUK-M3 anti-air defense system, and the Ukrainian rocket struck a central command post in Kursk. “The enemy has lost key officers from Russia and North Korea … I think we're talking about dozens of officers,” Zelenski told AP.
The problematic ally of Ukraine
The European allies of Ukraine continued to announce weapons and investment transfers in the own weapons industry of Ukraine.
On January 30, Sweden announced new military expenses of $ 1.2 billion for weapons and investments in the drone industry in Ukraine, which led to its total military contributions to $ 5.6 billion.
On Friday, Finland announced $ 200 billion in defensive items for Ukraine, leading to $ 2.5 billion.
But the United States, whose position for military aid was undeclared, as President Donald Trump took office last month now made his help.
Trump wants Ukrainian lithium, Uranus and other minerals in exchange for prolonged military assistance in the United States, he said on Monday.
“We are looking to make a deal with Ukraine, where they will provide ourselves what we give them with their rare lands and other things,” Trump said as he signs executive orders in the White House.
Russia has conquered about half of about $ 26 trillion minerals in Ukraine, The Washington Post reported.
Even with the Biden administration, when military aid is not conditional upon payment, it was often insufficient.
An investigation by Reuters found that the Biden administration had delayed arms supplies to Ukraine last year, partly due to fears about escalation and partly because of the confusion between the branches of the US military about what Ukraine actually received.
Monthly shipments are an average of $ 558 million between April and September, the investigation found, but fell to $ 1.1 billion a month after Trump won the November election.
Even this was not a leap to help, Reuters said, but simply corresponds to the monthly aid provided in the first two years of the war.
“November, Just About Half of the Total Dollar Amount The US Had Promised in 2024 From American Stockpiles Had Been Delivered, and ONLY About Depic Ongressional Aides, A US Official, And a legislator that informs the data, “Reuters writes.
During this time, Ukraine lost the bigger part of the land that had been counted in counterattack in 2023.
