TAIPEI, Taiwan – Russian forces are burning the faces of North Korean soldiers killed in assaults on Ukrainian positions to conceal their identities and keep secret their deployment to help Russia in its war, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russia had begun using North Koreans in significant numbers for the first time to assault Ukrainian positions and his forces released images and videos of what it said were the bodies of North Koreans soldiers, among some 200 killed and wounded in Russia’s Kursk region.

The United States said on Monday that it believed that North Korean troops had been killed in Kursk where Ukrainian forces are battling to hold an enclave they occupied in August.

Zelenskyy said Russia was trying to keep the presence of North Korean soldiers secret.

“While they were being trained, they were even forbidden to show their faces. The Russian military tried to delete any video evidence of their presence,” he said via his official Telegram on Monday.

“And now, after the battles with our guys, the Russians are also trying to... literally burn the faces of the dead North Korean soldiers,” the Ukrainian leader added, sharing a 30-second video as evidence.

Click to expand...

At the video’s 24-second mark, a group of people can be seen burning what appears to be a corpse on a slope covered in snow.

“Russians try to conceal the faces of North Korean soldiers even after their death,” reads a subtitle of the video.

Radio Free Asia has not been able to verify the video.

“There is no reason for Koreans to fight and die for Putin. And even after their deaths, Russia will only mock them,” said Zelenskyy. “This insanity must be stopped.”

Neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have confirmed that North Korean soldiers are helping Russia in the war that Putin launched with his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A U.S. Pentagon spokesman said on Monday there were “indications” of North Koreans killed and wounded while South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said it was “verifying” information that was “likely to be true.”

The U.S. and South Korea estimate that more than 10,000 North Koreans have been sent to Russia to help it with its war against Ukraine.

They have said that the North Koreans have been fighting in Russia’s southwestern Kursk border region against Ukrainian forces who occupied parts of it in early August.

Sanctions against North Korean officials

South Korea announced on Tuesday that it will impose sanctions on three top North Korean military officers and one missile developer believed to have been deployed to Russia to support its war on Ukraine.

The sanctioned officials are: Kim Yong Bok, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, Sin Kum Chol, director of its operations bureau, Ri Pong-chun, an army general who’s allegedly heading the “Storm Corps” special troops deployed to Russia’s western war front lines, and Ri Song-jin, a missile developer believed to have been sent to the war-torn border regions of Russia.

Click to expand...

StringerBell said:

MSN

Russia on the brink of civil war as Vladimir Putin regime challenged by warlord

Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of Chechnya, has launched a scathing attack on two of Russian President Vladimir Putin's most senior and trusted officials

www.irishstar.com

Click to expand...