Around 300 North Korean soldiers have been killed and 2,700 others injured in Russia’s war in Ukraine, South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers in a closed briefing Monday.
The National Intelligence Service said it had participated in the interrogation of several North Korean troops who were captured by Ukrainian forces.
The briefing came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers during fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in August.
Zelenskyy said late Sunday he would send captured North Koreans back to their country if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un organizes a swap for Ukrainian soldiers being held in Russia.
The Ukrainian leader said it is “only a matter of time” before Ukraine captures more North Korean soldiers, and that Russia’s military “is dependent on military assistance from North Korea.”
Drone attacks
Ukraine’s military said Monday it destroyed 78 of the 110 drones that Russian forces launched in overnight attacks targeting regions across the country.
The intercepts took place over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions, the Ukrainian air force said.
Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram that falling drone fragments damaged several houses, but did not hurt anyone. Russian shelling in his region injured one person, Kim said Monday.
In Sumy, officials said Russian attacks caused a fire at a residential building and injured one person.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it destroyed six Ukrainian drones over the Voronezh region, as well as one drone over Belgorod and another drone over Bryansk.
The ministry also said Monday that a Ukrainian drone attack Saturday targeted the TurkStream gas pipeline that is used to send Russian gas to Turkey and Europe.
Russian air defenses shot down all of the drones involved in the attack, and there were no casualties, the ministry said.
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
