Ukraine attacks N Korean troops near Russia border

Ukraine attacked North Korean troops for the first time since they were deployed in the Russian border region where Kyiv's forces have been holding territory since August, according to an official.

"The first North Korean troops have already come under fire in the Kursk region," Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, which is part of the country's National Security and Defense committee, said on Monday, without elaborating.

North Korea is dispatching about 10,000 troops, including from the elite special forces, to Russia, a move NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has called a "significant escalation" in Kremlin's war on Ukraine.


Russia has been speeding up an advance in Ukraine's east and pushed harder to dislodge Ukrainian forces in Kursk, where Kyiv's forces captured areas in a surprise incursion in August. Kremlin troops repelled Ukrainian counterattacks in Kursk about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the town of Sudzha, an important gas transportation hub .

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has criticized his Western allies for failing to provide much needed arms and for not allowing Ukraine use long-range weapons to strike military targets deep in Russian territory.

"Instead of providing the much-needed long-range capabilities, America is watching, Britain is watching, Germany is watching," Zelenskiy said in his daily address on Friday. "Everyone is just waiting for the North Korean military to start targeting Ukrainians."