Around 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 3,000 wounded while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine, the BBC’s Russian service reported Wednesday, citing unnamed Western officials. North Korea is believed to have sent thousands of troops last fall to help the Russian military drive out Ukrainian forces that are occupying the

The wounded fighters were taken for questioning to Kyiv, authorities said, where they could reveal details of Pyongyang’s cooperation with Moscow.

North Korean troops have been deployed to bolster Russian forces in the Kursk border region with Ukraine, where they are gaining battlefield experience despite initial heavy losses.

One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine this month has claimed that he arrived in Russia without knowing whom he would be fighting, according to another video of his interrogation released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

I didn’t know who we were fighting against.’ ‘My mother doesn’t know I am here.’ ‘I am serving under conscription.’ These are some of the remarkable insights a North Korean soldier fighting for Russia in Ukraine has offered after being captured in the battlefield.