North Korean forces are experiencing mass casualties on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine, with a thousand of their troops killed or injured in the last week alone in Russia’s Kursk region, the White House said Friday.
"It is clear that Russian and North Korean military leaders are treating these troops as expendable and ordering them on hopeless assaults against Ukrainian defenses," John Kirby, White House national security spokesperson, told reporters.
In his nightly address Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed. He said the North Koreans had little protection and took measures not to be captured.
"Everything is set up so that it is impossible for us to capture them. There are instances in which they are executed by their own forces. Russians send them into assaults with minimal protection," he said. These casualty numbers could not be verified.
Kirby characterized the North Korean troops’ offensive as “massed, dismounted assaults.”
North Korea's mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, and Russia's U.N. mission declined to comment.
Kirby also said President Joe Biden was likely to approve another security assistance package for Ukraine in the coming days.
That package is expected to be worth $1.25 billion, The Associated Press reported later Friday, citing anonymous sources. It said the package would contain a number of munitions, including for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the HAWK air defense system, as well as Stinger missiles and 155 mm and 105 mm artillery rounds.
Meanwhile, Slovakia on Friday confirmed its readiness to host peace talks aimed at ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is open to a Slovak proposal to host peace talks with Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February of 2022.
“We offer Slovak soil for such negotiations,” Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said on Facebook.
Blanar also said any talks must take place with all parties participating, including Russia. Russian officials were not present for previous talks in June in Switzerland.
“We consider the statement of the Russian president as a positive signal to end this war, this bloodshed and this destruction as soon as possible,” Blanar said.
The foreign minister said Slovakia, a European Union and NATO member, told Ukraine in October about its availability to host peace talks.
Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is one of just a few European leaders who have remained close with Moscow. He prompted an angry reaction from Ukraine when he met with Putin in Moscow on Dec. 22.
Fico also has halted all Slovakian military aid to Ukraine, and he has accused Ukraine of threatening Slovakia’s supply of Russian gas.
Also on Friday, the Ukrainian air force said its air defense shot down 13 of 24 Russian drones launched in an overnight attack.
The air force said the other 11 Russian drones were “lost” without causing damage.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Friday with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to discuss battlefield updates and U.S. support for Ukraine amid the war, the State Department said.
“The secretary reiterated unwavering U.S. support for Ukrainians in defense of their freedom,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement Friday.
That came as Russia's Defense Ministry said Friday that its forces had taken control of two eastern Ukrainian villages, according to the RIA state news agency.
The ministry identified the villages as Ivanivka in the Donetsk region and Zahryzove in the Kharkiv region.
VOA could not verify the Russian report.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
