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Eighteen North Korean soldiers, enlisted in the Russian army, have fled from their positions near the border between Ukraine and Russia’s Bryansk and Kursk regions.
The information was first reported by “Suspilne” and confirmed by a source in Ukrainian intelligence. The incident occurred 7 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, though the motives behind the North Korean soldiers’ escape remain unclear.
Russian military forces have begun searching for the deserters but are reportedly trying to conceal this information from their higher command.
Earlier reports indicated that the Russian army’s 11th Airborne Assault Brigade was forming a “special Buryat battalion,” which included North Korean personnel. “Suspilne,” citing intelligence, noted that the battalion could have up to 3,000 members and was being equipped with firearms and ammunition, possibly for deployment near Sudzha and Kursk.
In January 2024, it was confirmed that North Korea had begun supplying weapons to Russia. An investigation revealed that a North Korean missile was used by Russian forces to strike Kharkiv. Ukrainian intelligence further reported that North Korea has sent Russia approximately 1.5 million artillery shells from the 1970s and 1980s.
In June, Russia and North Korea signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement, which includes mutual military assistance in the event of aggression against Pyongyang or Moscow.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that North Korea is supplying not only weapons but also personnel to Russia. Last year, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence reported the arrival of a limited contingent of North Korean military personnel, including engineering units, to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
In early October, Kyiv Post reported that six North Korean officers were killed in a missile strike near the temporarily occupied Donetsk.
The Washington Post also reported that several thousand North Korean soldiers are currently being trained in Russia and may be deployed to the frontlines in Ukraine by the end of the year. The Kremlin, however, denies the involvement of North Korean troops in the war against Ukraine.
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