Ukrainian special forces fighting in Russia's western Kursk region have told the BBC they have not seen any North Korean troops there for the past three weeks. A spokesman said it was likely they had pulled out after suffering heavy losses. Last week, Western officials told the BBC that, out of some 11,000 troops sent from North Korea to fight for Russia, 1,000 had been killed in just three months. North Korea and Russia have not commented. On Friday, the Ukrainian special forces spokesman told the BBC he was only referring to areas in the Kursk region where his forces were fighting.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Friday, Jan. 31, soldiers have not seen North Korean troops on the front lines in Russia’s Kursk region in several weeks. A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military special forces told CNN he believes it is because of all the mass casualties Pyongyang’s soldiers have suffered. At the end of last year, around 12,000 North Korean troops were deployed to Russia and Ukraine, with around 4,000 having either been killed or injured since then. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced last week in Davos, Switzerland, that despite Russia’s 60,000 troops and 12,000 North Koreans in Kursk, Ukrainian forces remain in the region, fighting to hold onto Russian land in the hopes of having a better bargaining chip should peace talks start.

Ukraine believes North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia’s army on the Kursk front line have been “withdrawn” after suffering heavy losses, a military spokesman told AFP on Jan 31. Western, South Korean and Ukrainian intelligence agencies say Pyongyang deployed more than 10,000 troops to support Russia’s forces fighting in its western Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a shock cross-border offensive in August 2024. Kyiv captured dozens of border settlements in the operation – the first time a foreign army had crossed into Russian territory since World War II – in an embarrassing setback for the Kremlin. The North Korean deployment – never officially confirmed by Moscow or Pyongyang – was supposed to reinforce Russia’s army and help them expel Ukraine’s troops.