(Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated on Saturday that Russian and North Korean forces suffered heavy losses in combating in Russia’s southern Kursk area.
Ukrainian and Western assessments say that some 11,000 North Korean troops are deployed within the Kursk area, the place Ukrainian forces occupy swathes of territory after staging a mass cross-border incursion in August.
In his nightly video deal with, Zelenskiy quoted a report from prime Ukrainian commander Oleksandr Syrskyi as saying that the battles had taken place close to the village of Makhnovka, not removed from the Ukrainian border.
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“In battles yesterday and at this time close to only one village, Makhnovka, in Kursk area, the Russian military misplaced as much as a battalion of North Korean infantry troopers and Russian paratroops,” Zelenskiy stated. “That is vital.”
The president supplied no particular particulars. A battalion can differ in measurement however is mostly made up of a number of hundred troops.
Reuters couldn’t independently confirm the president’s account.
Zelenskiy final week reported heavy North Korean losses in Kursk area, saying their forces weren’t being protected by the Russian forces they’re combating alongside.
He stated North Koreans have been taking excessive measures to keep away from being taken prisoner and in some cases have been being executed by their very own forces.
In his newest remarks, Zelenskiy additionally stated “fierce battles” had raged alongside the complete 1,000-km (620-mile) entrance line, with essentially the most tough scenario close to town of Pokrovsk.
Russian forces, he stated, “proceed to expend huge numbers of their very own personnel in assaults”.
A Ukrainian navy spokesperson earlier stated Pokrovsk remained the “hottest” frontline sector, with Russian troops launching recent assaults close to the city in an effort to bypass it from the south and reduce off provide routes to Ukraine’s troops.
The town, dwelling to a mine that’s the sole provider of coking coal to Ukraine’s once-giant metal trade, had a pre-war inhabitants of some 60,000 individuals. Ukraine estimates that round 11,000 of them stay within the metropolis.
(Reporting by Ron Popeski and Oleksandr Kozhukhar; Modifying by Cynthia Osterman and Sandra Maler)
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