Vitalii Ovcharenko, a Ukrainian soldier, has been studying a brand new language: Korean. “I’ve picked up a few phrases. They are: ‘Hands up, drop your weapon and come to us slowly,’” he mentioned. “Also: ‘Throw off your body armour and helmet.’”
Ovcharenko has been mugging up with the assistance of a three-page printed information. It lists phrases in Ukrainian, their Korean equal, and a useful transliteration.
The information now lives subsequent to a shelf of detective novels and histories celebrating Stalin at his non permanent residence in Russia’s Kursk area. The books belong to the property’s former proprietor, who fled in August when Ukraine launched a counter-invasion. Three months on, Kyiv controls a major chunk of Russian territory across the border city of Sudzha.
To date, Moscow has been unable to finish this embarrassing state of affairs. It has launched air assaults on Ukrainian positions utilizing kamikaze drones and guided bombs – as much as 100 a day – and carries out assaults utilizing small infantry teams. Amid heavy losses, Vladimir Putin has turned to a brand new and extraordinary supply of manpower: North Korean troops, despatched by the regime’s supreme chief, Kim Jong-un.
In accordance with US intelligence, 10,000 North Korean troopers have arrived in Russia, a determine that Ukraine’s army intelligence chief says consists of 500 officers and three generals. These reinforcements – seen in movies gathering at ranges in Russia’s far japanese Khabarovsk area – are already combating close to Sudzha, and Kyiv says a “small engagement” befell this week. North Korea has pledged to help Moscow till it achieves a “great victory” in Ukraine.
What precisely their influence will probably be on the battlefield is unclear. Ukrainian troopers appear largely unconcerned. “We don’t know how Moscow will train them or communicate with them. They might be fanatical professionals with totalitarian souls. Or guys lacking experience from another continent. Either way, we’re ready for the threat,” Ovcharenko mentioned. He predicted: “They will just die uselessly.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hinted that Ukraine’s Kursk salient may play a job in negotiations after Donald Trump’s return to the White Home. Zelenskyy has accused the US, UK and Germany of passively “watching” as North Korea “fights in Europe”, and he has referred to as on allies to elevate restrictions on using long-range weapons, saying they may wipe out North Korean troops mustering in western Russia. Kyiv was not combating one nation however two, he posted on X.
North Korean troops haven’t but engaged in fight, however this can be a matter of days, not months. When deployed, they are going to be pushed ahead, sustaining heavy losses, as Russia tries to attenuate its personal troop mobilization—a politically delicate concern for Putin domestically. This…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) October 31, 2024
North Korea has already given Russia 3.5m artillery shells and short-range missiles, used to hit Kharkiv. In addition to combating, North Koreans might be despatched to work in munitions factories and to protect border areas, liberating up Russian troops. Moscow is reportedly serving to its ally with rice, house know-how, and offering $2,000 a month for troopers.
“Five years ago it would have seemed fantastical. This is our reality,” Lt Col Artem Kholodkevych, the chief of workers of Ukraine’s 61st mechanised brigade, advised the Guardian. “European countries need to consider how to respond.” He instructed Pyongyang’s involvement confirmed Putin desired an extended and bloody battle.
Kholodkevych mentioned the frontline had stabilised prior to now two weeks within the Kursk area after a Russian counter-offensive and Ukraine’s defences had been holding. Final week his items thwarted a raid on a frontline village, knocking out one enemy armoured car with a drone and chasing away a second. Ten Russian troopers dismounted. “We killed them,” he mentioned.
Critics have argued that the Kursk operation has sucked troops away from japanese Ukraine, the place Russia is advancing on the quickest price since 2022. Kholodkevych disagreed. He mentioned the shock offensive had punctured the parable of Russian invincibility, particularly within the eyes of worldwide companions, and raised morale. It additionally pre-empted a possible assault by Russia on Ukraine’s Sumy oblast, subsequent to Sudzha.
“In terms of size we are an expeditionary corps. It’s not a big number of soldiers,” Kholodkevych mentioned. “Our plan is to hold this territory for as long as possible. We don’t want to occupy it. The goal is to make them burn through resources.” On 22 October his brigade had captured 4 Russian troopers, 12 days after they had been first conscripted. “They had minimal training. Putin has a problem,” he added.
Anvar Hisoriev, the commander of the 225th separate assault brigade’s drone strike firm, mentioned Ukraine was dealing with a deepening anti-western coalition. It primarily featured Russia, North Korea and Iran, and extra loosely China and India, who purchased Russian oil and fuel. “If this is a war between democracy and dictatorship, why do we have restrictions? Do democracies not want us to win?” he requested.
Hisoriev mentioned his males dug in in Kursk had not encountered any North Koreans however had been motivated and skilled, and in want of arms. “We have the right soldiers. They are good people. But we need more weapons. Without them we can’t exploit the enemy’s weaknesses,” he mentioned.
Since summer season, the north-eastern metropolis of Sumy has change into a significant army hub for Ukraine’s Kursk operation. Humvees, vans and a soldier on a quad bike might be seen final week rattling over a busy potholed highway within the route of Sudzha and the town of Kursk. The now defunct worldwide border with Russia is eighteen miles from Sumy. Concrete pyramids topped with razor wire and first world war-style trenches line the route.
A gaggle of newly mobilised Ukrainian service personnel smoked subsequent to their pickup transport. Considered one of them, Ivan, mentioned he had had six weeks’ coaching and could be combating in Russia for the primary time. Was he frightened? “No. It will be cold. We are used to it,” he replied. His squad piled on to the car’s rear cargo mattress, clutching sleeping mats and field of chocolate biscuits. An officer shouted: “Everybody here?”. The car roared off.
A army driver, Pavel, mentioned his brigade had taken fewer casualties in Kursk oblast than in Ukraine. “Just four of our guys have been killed and 10 wounded,” he mentioned.
Volodymyr Niankin, a director who made a movie about Sumy’s resistance in 2022, mentioned he had seen a buildup of forces earlier than Ukraine’s Kursk incursion. The autos had been marked with triangles. Put up-offensive, Russia stepped up its assaults on Sumy utilizing Iranian-made Shahed drones and ballistic missiles, he mentioned. “Before 6 August it was mostly quiet. Now there are three or four strikes a week. It’s a rodeo with all types of weapons.”
The cross-border assault has allowed engineers to repair the fuel provide to Ukrainian border villages of damaged homes and yellowing autumnal pine forests, one thing that had been unattainable due to intense shelling. “I remain optimistic. But of course it’s war. People hope it will end in the next half a year. They are very tired,” Niankin mentioned.
Ukrainian service personnel inside Russia joke that whoever captures the primary North Korean prisoner of conflict will probably be rewarded with a crate of champagne. “In reality, we will hand North Koreans over to the competent organs,” Ovcharenko mentioned. Six North Korean officers have already been killed, Ukrainian media reviews say.
Ovcharenko mentioned he thought Russians in Sudzha had been unlikely to shelter wounded international troopers. He mentioned locals he talked to used derogatory phrases to explain individuals from Chechnya, and identified neighbours who had fraternised with them. “There is incredible racism here. I found it pretty shocking,” he mentioned.
In his view the Kursk raid had been successful, the unwelcome arrival of 4 North Korean brigades and early clashes however. “We’ve achieved more than we wanted or expected. Things are not easy in a war. But in general we feel positive.”
Which language would he research subsequent? “First I need to improve my Korean. Then Farsi, which is spoken in Iran, and after that some Chinese,” he mentioned.
