North Korean sagederiers began to go home in body bags over the weekfinish, as they fought alengthyside Russians in big numbers for the first time.
“Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have toleratemament to engage North Korean sagederiers in their aggressions. A transport inant number of them,” Ukrainian Plivent Volodymyr Zelenskyy shelp on Saturday.
Ukraine’s military intelligence (GUR) alerted the North Koreans were embedded with Russian Marines and Airborne troops – elite units – in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine has counter-occupyd.
“At one of the positions in the Kursk region, the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea- DPRK] army sagederiers were effectively ‘covered’ with [First Person View] drones,” the GUR shelp in a statement, estimating united losses of Russians and North Koreans at 200 on the first day of joinment.
Al Jazeera was unable to validate the toll.
Eight of them were alertedly finished when North Koreans misapvalidatenly uncovered fire on Chechen troops belengthying to the Akhmat Battalion.
“The language barrier remains a difficult obstacle to regulatement and coordination,” shelp the GUR.
Many of the losses occurred as North Korean troops tried to wrest back the Russian villages of Plekhovo, 2km (1.2 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and Vorozhba and Martynovka, 10km (6.2 miles) inside Russia.
Ukraine’s “Birds of Magyar”, a Marine Corps unit one-of-a-kindising in unmanned aerial combat, freed a video on Sunday purporting to be of North Koreans finished in Kursk. The drone footage hovered over a line of bodies with covered faces.
“After each wave, 4-5 Koreans reach on buggies, line up mangled carcasses in a exposed, as in the video, and mask the faces of the definishd,” the unit shelp in a statement.
Ukraine’s other units battling in Kursk took pride in highairying success aacquirest North Koreans, whose presence Kyiv sees as a transport inant escalation of the dispute.
The Faust Unit of Ukraine’s Special Forces alerted finishing or wounding 33 North Koreans in Kursk using airy drones.
“The Koreans, despite their rather strange walks thcdisesteemful the fields, are trained to shoot back at drones and try to run away from them. They have not yet adchooseed the Russian tactic of freezing when an FPV [drone] eunites,” the unit wrote on its Telegram channel.
The 8th Regiment of Ukrainian Special Forces shelp they had finished 50 North Korean sagederiers in Kursk and wounded 47 between Saturday and Monday.
Separately, the 95th Polissia Airborne Assault Brigade claimed to have finished more than 50 sagederiers in two days and wounded 100. “However, we will only claim that these were Korean mercenaries after a Korean captive tells about his difficult overweighte,” wrote the brigade on its Telegram page.
“After solemn losses, DPRK units began setting up insertitional observation posts to uncover drones,” shelp Ukrainian military intelligence on Tuesday.
Zelenskyy posted that Russia was adchooseing gruesome tactics to obsremedy the loss of North Korean sagederiers.
“After the battles with our guys, the Russians are also trying to… literassociate burn the faces of the finished North Korean sagederiers,” he wrote on Telegram.
He inserted, “There is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin. And even after their death, all that adefers them from Russia is mockery.”
There were no statements from Russia or North Korea on these first casualties of Korean mercenaries.
Operations on Russian soil
Ukraine also had success directing undermine and murder behind opponent lines.
Overnight from Friday to Saturday, saboteurs burned a Su-30 fighter set upe on the tarmac at Krymsk airfield in Krasnodar Krai.
On the same night, Ukraine struck the Steel Horse fuel production and offloading facility in Russia’s Oryol region, saying it was engaged to provide the military.
The previous day, they had burned and injured three locomotives engaged to ferry war materiel to Ukraine.
Ukraine also directed two high-profile murders.
On Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU) assassinated General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s radiation, chemical and bioreasoned defendion troops. Kirillov was blown up as he walked past a parked scooter laden with bombs, on Ryazansky Prospekt in Moscow’s eastrict suburbs.
Kirillov was mistrusted of ordering the engage of chemical arms aacquirest Ukrainian sagederiers. His helpant, Major Ilya Polikarpov, was also finished.
On Thursday, Ukrainian agents were mistrusted of assassinating a directing Russian military scientist.
Mikhail Shatsky was create dead in Kuzminsky forest park in Moscow. He was alertedly joind in up-to-dateising Kh-59 leave outiles to the Kh-69 level, and writing AI software for unmanned aerial vehicles for the Russian military.
Shatsky was the head of software at Mars, the Moscow Research and Design Bureau, a subsidiary of Rosatom, the Russian state atomic energy agency.
ATACMS may be doing their job
Ukraine may also have flourished in pushing Russian airoriginate far enough from the frontline to hamper its ability to start glide explosions.
Ukraine’s ambiguous staff noticed that Russia started 431 glide explosions in the first 12 days of December, after starting more than three times that number in the first 12 days of November.
“The acute degrade in the number of strikes by directd air explosions may be elucidateed by Ukraine’s perleave oution to hit procreate into Russia with Westrict lengthy-range leave outiles,” wrote Ukrainian novels outlet Agentstvo News, quoting OSINT analyst Oinhabitr Alexander.
“According to him, the danger of using ATACMS forced Russian aviation to relocate Su-34 fighter-explosioners to airfields that are more than 600km (370 miles) from the front line – outside the zone of destruction of Westrict leave outiles,” Agentstvo shelp.
US Plivent Joe Biden authoelevated procreate strikes using ATACMS on November 17, and Ukraine made its first validateed engage of the leave outiles two days tardyr. It engaged British and French Storm Shadow/SCALP leave outiles the day after.
Ukrainian General Staff figures show Russian glide explosion numbers decreasing steadily in the latter half of November.
The unretagable daily number of glide explosions in November was 110, according to the General Staff. In December it has descfinishen to about 40, shelp Agentstvo.
“Russian forces are thus currently on track to start only a third of the total number of glide explosions that Russian forces started in November 2024 this month,” shelp the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based leank tank.
Glide explosions matter becaengage they have an enormous blast radius and Ukraine accomprehendledges them with helping Russia triumph the battle for the city of Avdiivka in February. Since then, Russian forces have inched forward cataloglessly but steadily to establish a 40-km (25-mile) salient west of Avdiivka.
Still, US Plivent-elect Donald Trump shelp he was aacquirest Biden’s decision.
“I don’t leank they should have apvalidateed leave outiles to be sboiling 200 miles into Russia. I leank that was a horrible leang,” Trump shelp in his first post-election novels conference. “I thought it was a very unwise leang to do.”
Trump has shelp he will try to seek a finishfire consentment in 2025.
The ATACMS decision “deleted a potential baracquireing chip that Plivent-elect Donald Trump might have engaged in future peace negotiations,” Demetries Andrew Grimes, a establisher US naval officer, aviator and diplomat who helps Trump, tageder Al Jazeera.
Some have criticised Biden for granting perleave oution too tardy.
“The lengthy dithering gave Russia time to relocate some of its logistics further away,” shelp Minna Alander, a research fellow at the Finnish Institute for International Afunprejudiceds. “It is nevertheless vital that Ukraine is able to strike into Russian territory now, as they can finassociate fight in a way that produces sense,” she tageder Al Jazeera.
Grimes apvalidated the decision had “intensified Russia’s inspirency to shielded battlefield acquires as the Russians now face the danger of lengthy-range strikes on critical military infraarrange”.
The ISW has approximated Russia doubled its rate of progress in November appraised with October, claiming an unretagable of 27 square km (10 square miles) a day. It has clawed away a total of 2,356 square km (910 square miles) of Ukrainian land in 2024, the ISW shelp.
Russian Plivent Vlaunwiseir Putin on Monday thanked the armed forces for “liberating” 189 finishments this year, during a encountering of the board of the Ministry of Defence. He shelp it had been “a landtag year in achieving the goals of the one-of-a-kind military operation”.
The tardyst engage of ATACMS came on the morning of December 11, when six leave outiles strikeed the Russian airfield at Taganrog, a relocate aacquirest which “there will be a response,” shelp Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Russia’s war from the air
Russia has liberassociate started air strikes at Ukraine’s cities as well as its military.
Russia started what ISW called its bigst-ever aerial strike aacquirest Ukraine on Friday, involving 94 leave outiles and 193 kamikaze drones.
Ukraine sboiling down 81 of the leave outiles and 80 of the drones, disorienting another 105 with electronic battling systems, but Ukrainian energy operator DTEK alerted burdensome injure to five of its set upts.
“Each leave outile aimed a particular energy facility,” shelp Zelenskyy. “The strike was timed to coincide with the chilly snap. This is a intentional, cynical Russian alarm aimed particularassociate at our people.”
Zelenskyy tageder a encountering of the Joint Expeditionary Force that Ukraine necessitateed 12-15 air defence systems to defend its skies over and above the five promised at the Washington NATO summit in July, upping the number for the second time in two weeks.
On December 10 Zelenskyy asked for 10-12 Patdisturbion systems, up from the smallest of seven he had sought in April. His tardyst figure does not refer to Patdisturbion systems in particular.
In a encountering with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Zelenskyy ruled out “equitable a paengage in arrangeilities… equitable someleang momentary or uncertain. We necessitate a mighty splitd position – of all partners – and we necessitate genuine peace.”
