The Russian military is now deploying North Korean soldiers in greater numbers for attacks in Kursk near the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday evening in his nightly video address.
"The losses in this category are already significant," Zelensky said in his evening video address. He did not provide any figures. Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of deliberately escalating the war against Ukraine and ignoring calls from China and Brazil to do everything possible to de-escalate the situation.
Initial reports of the deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia emerged in October. In early November, Ukraine first reported the involvement of these soldiers in combat. According to Zelensky, North Koreans are now largely integrated into Russian units and could soon appear on other fronts.
His comments came after earlier in the day,. Russian shelling claimed the lives of at least two people in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, with a further six injured, Kherson Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Telegram.
Prokudin said that three residential blocks, two single-family homes and many cars had been damaged in the attack.
The front line in the region runs along the Dnipro River which flows into the Black Sea.
As cold weather sets in, Moscow has been repeatedly attacking the electricity and heating infrastructure to make life miserable for Ukrainian citizens.
Kiev has also been losing territory to Russia at multiple points along the roughly 1,000-kilometre front line, according to military observers, as after nearly three years of war, Kiev's military is stretched thin.
Russia stated that its heavy strikes are in response to Kiev's use of weapons obtained from Western powers.
But in Moscow, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev suggested the possibility of further territorial acquisitions in Ukraine.
At a party congress of the Kremlin's United Russia party, Medvedev said it was necessary to develop the [Moscow-annexed] regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson.
"This experience, incidentally, could be helpful if more new, but very close regions appear in our country," which he said was quite possible.
Medvedev remains influential as the party chairman of United Russia and deputy head of Russia's National Security Council.
The Kremlin, which began its war against Ukraine in February 2022 under the pretext of protecting the Russian-speaking civilian population in Donbass, has so far only partially captured the four regions, but demands their cession from Kiev as a precondition for peace talks. Moscow has repeatedly threatens further annexations should Ukraine not accept the demand.
