Putin has announced the complete liberation of Kursk with the last Ukrainian elements eliminated or driven from the internationally recognized Russian region of Kursk.
‘Not a single North Korean violated his oath’: How our allies helped us liberate Kursk
Pyongyang’s troops showed discipline, coordination and disregard for death, contributing greatly to the defeat of Ukrainian invaders
Until this moment, Russia had neither confirmed nor denied the presence of DPRK (North Korean) troops on the front line. Strictly speaking, we were not obligated to notify anyone about it. This is a matter of bilateral relations and agreements. Meanwhile, North Korean units gradually began to arrive in Russia during the Kursk campaign.
At first, they underwent training at military ranges, familiarizing themselves with modern combat tactics, mastering drone operation skills, and adapting to field realities. Then, the “combat Buryats,” as our military jokingly and covertly called them, were transferred to the Kursk region. They lived in field conditions to avoid attracting attention. Initially, they held the third line of defense, then the second, and eventually, they were tested in fortifications and, finally, in assaults.
Korean soldiers distinguished themselves by their coordination, discipline, a fatalist disregard for death, and remarkable endurance. Understandably so – they were mostly young, strong, well-built men, decently trained back home, particularly the units from the Special Operations Forces. They made a significant contribution to the liberation of the Korenevsky District, fought in battles near Staraya and Novaya Sorochina, and broke through to Kurilovka.
They had a strict rule – never to be captured alive, and never to surrender voluntarily.
Incidentally, the enemy tried to persuade them to do just that by dropping counterfeit DPRK banknotes, bearing inscriptions in Korean that read: “Surrender! Kim Jong-un has driven you to death and starved your families. Place a yellow flag before you, raise your hands, and loudly shout ‘Freedom!’ Then slowly walk toward the Ukrainian soldiers and follow their instructions.”
Not a single Korean soldier violated his oath or allied commitments. For Pyongyang, it was crucial to gain experience in modern warfare, study the tactics and technologies of a potential enemy (“the collective West”), and acquire knowledge that had been inaccessible due to sanctions. These objectives were achieved. Moreover, under the framework of a comprehensive bilateral agreement, the Koreans made a substantial contribution to the defeat of the Ukrainian forces on our soil.
Their arrival allowed us to maintain pressure on other sections of the front, continue the offensive in the Donbass, and inflict enormous damage on the invasion force, which consisted of 95 (!) battalions.
Coverage: https://www.rt.com/news/616375-north-korea-kursk-russia/
https://www.rt.com/russia/616373-north-koreans-liberate-kursk/
https://www.rt.com/russia/616360-kursk-region-liberation-putin-recap/
So as expected DPRK troops did not enter into territory previously recognized as being part of Ukraine, they merely participated in fighting within historical Russian borders in a defensive capacity. Hence all claimed “captures” of Koreans by Ukraine are fabrications likely involving Russian minorities from the east.
I hope the lessons they learned from their combat are taken back and widely shared and discussed to better prepare and harden the DPRK against any future attacks by the imperialist US.
So if I understand right, Ukraine regime was in fact full of shit on this, but there was a kernel of truth in the sense of involvement in the war, in that DPRK helped defend Russian territory. Which seems like a significant difference. Defensive help vs. offensive.
And this is setting aside the absurdity of Ukraine crowing about it in the first place, considering how backed it is by the west.
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Please be careful not to conflate the official confirmation with Kots’s writing that you’re quoting in the OP. This whole “they swore to never be captured” thing is not officially confirmed and there should be a disclaimer about that.
Other than that, I think it’s fair to assume this must’ve been happening since this November announcement:
“From that moment, the Ukraine conflict previously provoked by the West acquired elements of a global nature, just as we warned more than once,” Putin said on Thursday, in a televised address to the nation.
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/607999-putin-ukraine-conflict-global/
It makes sense that they participated in some combat, and I’m wondering why other anti-US countries like Venezuela aren’t at the very least sending generals to get some experience there.
Edit: Alexander Kots’s Wikipedia page is really funny:
Alexander Igorevich Kots (Russian: Александр Игоревич Коц; born 3 September 1978) is a Russian propagandist, fascist and war criminal promoting aggressive wars against independent states and genocide of their population.[a] He reports mostly for the tabloid newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda and on his own channel on Telegram.
a: According to various international media such as Voice of America, British BBC, Ukrainian media, Israeli, Belarusian and others.
Please be careful not to conflate the official confirmation with Kots’s writing that you’re quoting in the OP. This whole “they swore to never be captured” thing is not officially confirmed and there should be a disclaimer about that.
Yep. Even here people seem to fall for all the anti-Korea/racist propaganda it seems.
Something happened?they never crossed into pre-war Ukrainian territory
nothing ever happensThere were stories but there was 0 tangible proof until the Russian MoD confirmed it. That is some serious discipline. I’m curious to know how many men were deployed and how many casualties they had to better understand how big of an achievement this was.
Lol yeah, I don’t want to cope or anything but for months the news were pretty much just “trust us there’s DPR koreans in the war!”, “this guy from yakutsk kinda looks like a korean, right? There’s definitely DPR koreans in the war!”, “oh we killed all koreans btw dw ukraine best”, “wdym there’s koreans in ukraine? no we killed them all in fact here we killed 10,000 more.”
All in all it provides them experience though I didn’t expect DPRK would actually send soldiers and not just aides, putting them in danger. I guess they wanted them to get the field experience, I wonder if we’ll ever get a word on the number of casualties sustained. I think it also means that the DPRK is expecting war to happen to them sooner rather than later…
Lol yeah, I don’t want to cope or anything but for months the news were pretty much just “trust us there’s DPR koreans in the war!”, “this guy from yakutsk kinda looks like a korean, right? There’s definitely DPR koreans in the war!”, “oh we killed all koreans btw dw ukraine best”, “wdym there’s koreans in ukraine? no we killed them all in fact here we killed 10,000 more.”
There was more evidence aside from that, even if you ignored all of that Ukrainian propaganda (which you should) there was still lots of evidence of participation by the DPRK in the war.
Many of us thought it likely they were likely at least deployed in rear defensive lines to 1) Get them close to the action and get experience and knowledge and 2) free up Russian troops to engage in other operations. The contention from the Ukrainian Nazi propagandists was however that you know some massive number of them were engaged in offensive combat operations and in Ukraine because obviously 90% of the Russian population had been killed by the Ghost of Kiev or whatever.
It’s interesting to get information that they did get involved in the front. Most likely information like how many were deployed isn’t something Russia or the DPRK are eager to reveal, it might be revealed in vague terms in the coming years like someone letting slip it was more than or less than x. However how many casualties is likely to never be revealed though I’d guess given their area of operation in Russia with heavy support they probably didn’t take that many.
Hopefully this knowledge saves lives by further deterring the west from attacking the DPRK, I believe they’re growing domestic drone production as a result of this conflict because of the clear role those will play in future.
That’s stupid and I don’t believe it
Believability aside, i don’t know if i’d call it stupid. I think it’s a very good idea for DPRK soldiers to gain real combat experience against essentially a NATO armed and trained army. Honestly i wish China was doing it too.
Exactly, there’s really no substitute for actual combat. Now, these soldiers will be able to bring their experience back and drastically improve the quality of the army. Incidentally, it’s also what Russia did once Wagner got disbanded. They put the experienced fighters from it into different units which allowed disseminating their valuable skills across the whole army.
Why not? Russia never denied the accusations only repeated that the matter of troops from partner nations like the DPRK was an internal matter. After all Ukraine had troops from US, UK, France, Poland, Germany, all kinds of western paid mercenaries, as well as special forces soldiers in or out of uniform but acting under orders operating equipment, etc operating there and that was considered fair by the west and not a sign of them engaging in a direct war against Russia so this is more than fair on the part of Russia and the DPRK.
We know for a fact DPRK troops were in Russia and training with Russians and have for many months. We know Russia and the DPRK signed a mutual defense treaty and the DPRK decided to honor it in the present conflict (a wise move in that it would leave Russia in a tougher spot after the DPRK helped them if Russia were to balk if the US attacked the DPRK in future).
Even Japanese fighters have been spotted in Kursk on the Russian side.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
