U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Rescuers clear the rubble after a Russian air guided bomb hit the centre of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Friday, July 10, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP

For weeks, Ukrainian troops braced for an unfamiliar enemy: North Korean soldiers sent to bolster Moscow’s forces after Ukraine launched a lightning-fast incursion and seized territory in Russia’s Kursk region over the summer.

Their arrival marked a new and alarming phase in the war. And while initially inexperienced on the battlefield, North Korean troops have adapted quickly — a development that could have far-reaching consequences as they gain combat knowledge in the war against Ukraine.

Unlike the Russian troops Ukraine has been battling for nearly three years, Kyiv’s forces were uncertain about what to expect from this new adversary, drawn into the war after Moscow and Pyongyang signed an agreement pledging military assistance using “all means” if either were attacked.

North Korean troops: disciplined and highly methodical

One Ukrainian soldier who has witnessed North Koreans in battle described them as disciplined and highly methodical, saying they were more professional than their Russian counterparts. The soldier spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the sensitive military issue.

However, other soldiers, including Ukrainian special forces, have shared battlefield drone footage on the Telegram messaging app mocking their tactics as outdated.

Nevertheless, there is consensus among Ukrainian soldiers, military intelligence and others monitoring developments on the ground: While Pyongyang’s troops lacked battlefield experience when they arrived, that has been changing quickly.

With 1.2 million troops, North Korea’s military ranks among the largest standing armies globally. But its post-Korean War foreign engagements have been limited, leaving them inexperienced with modern warfare technologies like drones.

“For the first time in decades, the North Korean army is gaining real military experience,” said Andrii Yusov, spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. “This is a global challenge — not just for Ukraine and Europe, but for the entire world.”

Despite Ukrainian, U.S. and South Korean assertions that Pyongyang has sent 10,000-12,000 troops to fight alongside Russia in the Kursk border region, Moscow has never publicly acknowledged the North Korean forces.

While reports of their presence first emerged in October, Ukrainian troops only confirmed engagement on the ground in December.

Analysts say that without the influx of North Korean troops, Russia would have struggled to pursue its strategy of overwhelming Ukraine by throwing large numbers of soldiers into the battle for Kursk.

While Moscow’s counterattack in Kursk has inflicted thousands of Ukrainian casualties, Kyiv’s overstretched forces have managed to hold on to about half of the 984 square kilometers (380 square miles) seized in August, though the situation remains dynamic. Besides the symbolic impact of Ukraine’s success capturing Russian territory, control of Kursk could also be a bargaining chip in any ceasefire negotiations.

North Korean soldiers operating alongside Russian units

According to Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the North Korean soldiers are operating alongside Russian units, with the latter providing reconnaissance and electronic warfare support.

The North Koreans wear Russian military uniforms with fake military IDs in their pockets, according to a report by a Ukrainian military unit that has observed them on the battlefield, and they could easily be mistaken for Russian soldiers.

The subterfuge means Moscow and “its representatives at the U.N. can deny the facts,” said Yusov, the Ukrainian military intelligence spokesperson.

Among the things proving their presence is that they have been heard speaking Korean with North Korean accents in intercepted communications, Yusov said.

He said the North Korean troops are using their own weapons and equipment and have learned to cope with the improvised explosives-laden drones that have become emblematic of the war, first-hand experience even some NATO-member countries don’t have.

“This is a new level of threat,” Yusov said. “Regional countries must prepare for what this means in the future.”

The North Koreans’ early missteps were largely caused by inexperience, such as moving in large groups in open terrain, making them easy targets for drones and artillery strikes.

According to the Ukrainian military unit’s report, the North Korean soldiers were spotted easily as they moved in single-file columns through forest in groups of three, with 3 to 5 meters (yards) between soldiers. On open terrain, they moved in dispersed formations of five to 15 soldiers, making them vulnerable and leading to heavy losses.

However, during night operations, their movements were swift and units oriented themselves using red flashlights along routes, the report said.

“They’re fast, physically well-prepared, and act strictly according to their algorithms,” said the Ukrainian soldier who spoke to the AP. “If you drill the same routines for years, to the point where they can be executed blindfolded, it will yield results.”

Despite their discipline, their lack of combat experience hindered their effectiveness. The Ukrainian military reported that North Korean troops often sustained heavy losses, with many killed by drones.

On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy put the number of killed or wounded North Koreans at 4,000, though U.S. estimates are lower, at around 1,200.

“Much of their military doctrine and training is based on strategies and experiences from over half a century ago,” said Glib Voloskyi, a military analyst with the Ukrainian think tank CBA Initiatives Center.

The large-group formations date to when artillery accuracy was significantly lower, and observing troop movements much more difficult. Today, reconnaissance and so-called first-person view drones, or FPVs, that transmit video allowing soldiers to strike targets in real time have made the battlefield highly transparent, and anyone stepping onto it without cover, let alone moving in groups, is immediately spotted.

“But it is only a matter of time before they acquire the necessary skills to improve their combat effectiveness, which, combined with their discipline and training, could make them a significant military force,” Voloskyi said.

After weeks of fighting, Ukrainian soldiers have taken only two prisoners of war. In announcing the capture Saturday, Zelenskyy said taking them alive “was not easy” because of efforts to conceal the North Koreans’ presence and avoid their interrogation by Ukraine.

North Korean soldiers avoid surrendering at all costs, Zelenskyy said.

This may stem from North Korean internal propaganda that portrays capture as the ultimate disgrace, analysts said.

“To be captured alive is considered a betrayal of the country, the leader and everything they stand for,” said Seongmin Lee of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, who defected from North Korea in 2009.

This belief is instilled from a young age and reinforced throughout military training, he said. “Because of the disgrace associated with the capitulation, heroic soldiers are supposed to save the last of their bullets to kill themselves,” Lee said.

Lee said he shared photos of dead North Korean soldiers with contacts back home. “Most North Koreans don’t even know what is going on,” he said.

Dorothy Camille Shea, the deputy U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned of the dangers posed by the rapidly improving battlefield skills the North Korean troops are gaining fighting in Kursk.

North Korea “is significantly benefiting from receiving Russian military equipment, technology and experience, rendering it more capable of waging war against its neighbors,” Shea told the 15-member U.N. Security Council on Wednesday.

As an added potential benefit, she said, North Korea “ will likely be eager to leverage these improvements to promote weapons sales and military training contracts globally.”

Washington, United States:

Ukraine “will lose” its war against Russia if the United States cuts military funding to Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky told Fox News on Tuesday.

“If they cut, we will — I think we will lose,” Zelensky said in an interview with the US television network.

“We will fight. We have our production, but it’s not enough to prevail. And I think it’s not enough to survive,” he continued.

US President-elect Donald Trump is a vocal skeptic of the billions that the administration of President Joe Biden has given to Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in 2022.

Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war quickly, but has not provided details of how he would do so.

This week his allies voiced vehement criticism of Biden’s decision to let Ukraine use US-supplied long-range missiles for attacks inside Russia, accusing him of a dangerous escalation.

Zelensky told Fox that “unity” between Ukraine and the United States was “most important.”

Trump, he said, could influence Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war, “because he is much more stronger than Putin.”

Putin “can be willing and end this war, but it also depends on the United States of America much more. Putin is weaker than the United States of America,” he said.

With Russia gaining ground and increasing talk of negotiations, Ukraine is wary of being at a disadvantage when it comes to hashing out a peace settlement.

READ | Donald Trump Commits To Ending “All Wars” But Middle East Is A Complex Place

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A view shows an apartment building damaged during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia’s attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukraine’s air defences downed 41 of 80 Russian drones launched overnight, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday (October 27, 2024).

The air force said it lost track of 32 drones but gave no further details.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ukrainian air force said on Friday (October 11, 2024) it shot down 29 out of 66 Russian drones launched overnight.

Moscow also launched two missiles, it added, and 31 drones were “locationally lost”, likely due to electronic warfare.

Two more drones returned toward Russian territory, the air force said.

Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) are seen after a swap, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location in Ukraine, in this handout picture released on September 14, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Ukrainian Presidential Press Service

Moscow and Kyiv swapped 103 prisoners of war each on Saturday (September 14, 2024) in a deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates, a rare moment of coordination between the two warring sides as Russia pushes ahead in east Ukraine.

The Russians released in the swap were captured during Ukraine’s incursion into the Kursk region, Moscow said, while some of the Ukrainians freed had been held prisoner since Moscow seized the Azovstal steel plant in May 2022.

“Another 103 soldiers were returned to Ukraine from Russian captivity,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Among the freed were 82 privates and sergeants as well as 21 officers, Mr. Zelenskyy said.

“The defenders of Kyiv, Donetsk, Mariupol and Azovstal, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and the Kharkiv regions,” he added.

Russia confirmed it had “handed over” 103 Ukrainian army prisoners, and received 103 Russian servicemen captured by Kyiv in its Kursk offensive in return.

“At present, all Russian servicemen are on the territory of the Republic of Belarus, where they are being provided with the necessary psychological and medical assistance, as well as an opportunity to contact their relatives,” the Russian defence ministry said.

Despite ongoing hostilities, Russia and Ukraine have managed to swap hundreds of prisoners throughout the two-and-half-year conflict — often in deals brokered by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Turkey.

The announcement comes a day after Zelensky said 49 Ukrainian POWs had been returned from Russia, and three weeks ago both sides swapped 115 prisoners each in a deal also mediated by the UAE.

The UAE’s foreign ministry hailed the deal as a “success” and thanked both sides for their cooperation on Saturday.

Russian advances

The prisoner swap came as Russia pushed ahead in east Ukraine, where it claims to have captured a string of villages in recent weeks.

The Russian defence ministry said in a daily briefing it had “liberated” the village of Zhelanne Pershe, less than 30 kilometres (19 miles) from the key Ukrainian-held logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

Pokrovsk lies on the intersection of a key road that supplies Ukrainian troops and towns across the eastern front and has long been a target for Moscow’s army.

More than half of the city’s 60,000 residents have fled since the invasion began in February 2022, with evacuations ramping up in recent weeks as Moscow’s army closes in.

Ukraine had hoped its major cross-border incursion into the Kursk region last month would slow down Russia’s advances in the east.

On Friday, Zelenskyy said Moscow had been slowed down somewhat but conceded the situation on the eastern front was “very difficult”.

Russia meanwhile claimed this week to have clawed back a swath of territory in the Kursk region, as it mounted what appeared to be a counter-offensive.

Missile spat

Tensions between Russia and the West over the conflict reached dire levels this week over UK and US discussions about letting Ukraine use longer-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia.

The discussions came after a visit to Kyiv by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British counterpart David Lammy.

President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Thursday that green-lighting the use of the long-range weapons deep inside Russia would put the NATO military alliance “at war” with Moscow.

“This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict,” Mr. Putin told a state television reporter.

“It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia,” he added.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden on Friday delayed a decision on the move.

US officials believe the missiles would make a limited difference to Ukraine’s campaign and also want to ensure that Washington’s own stocks of the munitions are not depleted.

Image used for representative purpose only.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ukraine’s air force said on Monday (September 9, 2024) it shot down six out of eight Russian-launched drones and two out of three missiles during an overnight attack over four Ukrainian regions.

Kyiv authorities said an attack on the city, the fifth in September, had not done damage or caused injuries in the capital.

Also Read:Two NATO members say Russian drones have violated their airspace

Russia has launched hundreds of missiles and drones to attack Ukraine in the past weeks, prompting Kyiv to reiterate to its Western allies the urgent need for air defence and long-range strike capacity to repel the attacks.

On Monday, the air defence shot down aerial targets in the Kyiv region with debris causing two fires in open areas which have since been put out, the regional authorities said.

Serhiy Lysak, the governor of the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, said air defence shot down two missiles there, in addition to one reconnaissance drone.

Russian shelling of the town of Nikopol in this region injured three people and killed a 16-year-old girl, Ms. Lysak said.

The governor of the central Cherkasy region said air defence destroyed one drone and debris caused a fire which has since been put out.

The energy ministry said Russian forces had also attacked energy facilities in seven regions within 24 hours. The statement did not detail the scale of damage at the facilities.

PM Narendra Modi is headed for his much-anticipated trip to Ukraine after wrapping up his two-day visit to Poland this morning. He is scheduled to meet the Ukrainian PM Volodymyr Zelenskyy, upon whose invite he is visiting the conflict-hit nation-state.

PM Modi’s Ukraine visit comes nearly six weeks after he visited Russia to discuss the conflict-ridden situation amid Russia Ukraine. This shall also be an Indian PM’s first visit to Ukraine.

The Official Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal posted on the social media platform X (formerly, Twitter) that PM Modi’s visit to Poland after four decades will widen and deepen India-Poland relations.

The UN secretary-general’s office said that they hope that the Indian PM’s visit to Ukraine might bring up the possibility of putting an end to the war.

Although India has yet to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, PM Modi’s statement said, “As a friend and partner, we hope for an early return of peace and stability in the region.”

“I look forward to the opportunity to build upon earlier conversations with President Zelenskyy on strengthening bilateral cooperation and share perspectives on peaceful resolution of the ongoing Ukraine conflict. I am confident that the visit will serve as a natural continuation of extensive contacts with the two countries and help create the foundation for stronger and more vibrant relations in the years ahead,” it further added.

The Ukrainian PM congratulated PM Modi on his election victory earlier this year. 

Here are the live updates of PM Modi’s visit to Ukraine: