CNN —North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military documents with Russian names and birthplaces, the Ukrainian military said, amid claims from Kyiv that Russia is trying to conceal the presence of foreign fighters on the battlefield.
Ukraine’s special operations forces said in a statement Sunday they had killed three North Korean soldiers in Russia’s western Kursk region and seized their documents.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have ever officially acknowledged the presence of North Korean troops in Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia is attempting to conceal the losses of North Korean troops on the battlefield, resorting to extreme tactics to disguise the identity of North Korean soldiers killed in combat.
“Russians are trying… to literally burn the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in battle,” Zelensky said in a statement on X on December 17, alongside a video purportedly showing Russian soldiers setting fire to the bodies of North Korean soldiers.
Persons:
—, –, Volodymyr Zelensky, ” Zelensky, Andriі, “, ” Kovalenko
Organizations:
CNN, North, US, Russian, Koreans, Korean, National Security and Defense
Locations:
Russia, Kyiv, Russia’s, Kursk, Republic of Tuva, Russian, Siberia, Mongolia, Ukrainian, Korea, Moscow, Pyongyang, North