Today Putin announced the complete liberation of the Kursk region:
In reality, it seems the Kremlin has made a habit out of reporting slightly premature victories, as they famously did in Khrynki last year. Ukrainian troops have been driven back to nearly the border, but top map makers on both sides still maintain a tiny sliver of Kursk land held by dogged AFU units. To be fair, Gerasimov did indicate in the report that the last few Ukrainian stragglers hiding in abandoned sheds and woods near the border were being hunted down.
But the biggest ‘shock’ came when Gerasimov made official confirmation of the active participation of North Korean troops in the Kursk theater:
And it wasn’t mere presence—Gerasimov reports they fought shoulder to shoulder with Russian troops. And now that the cat’s out of the bag, there are more details trickling out from Russian frontline journos who had previously been sworn to OPSEC about the DPRK forces.
One channel published this photo of what is claimed to be real DPRK troops:
Famed journo Alexander Kots filled in the following:
How Koreans Helped Us Liberate Kursk Region
Until now, Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of DPRK troops on the front line. We are not obliged to inform anyone, in fact. This is a matter of bilateral relations and agreements. Meanwhile, Korean units gradually began to arrive in Russia during the Kursk epic.
At first, they were trained at training grounds, familiarized themselves with modern combat tactics, mastered drone control skills, and became familiar with field realities. Then the "combat Buryats," as our military jokingly and for the sake of secrecy called them, were transferred to the Kursk region. They lived in field conditions so as not to "show off." At first, they held the third line, then the second, then they were tested in fortifications and, finally, in assaults.
The Korean soldiers distinguished themselves with their coherence, discipline, fatal disregard for death and remarkable endurance. It is understandable - they are mostly young guys, strong, pumped up and well trained in their homeland. Especially their units of the Special Operations Forces. The allies made a great contribution to the liberation of the Korenevsky district, and in the battles near Staraya and Novaya Sorochiny, and in the breakthrough to Kurilovka... They had a strict rule - not to be captured alive. And not to surrender voluntarily.
By the way, the enemy tried to persuade them to do this by throwing around imitation DPRK banknotes (pictured) with the following text written in hieroglyphs: "Surrender! Kim Jong-un has brought you to death and starved your families. Place a yellow flag in front of you, raise your hands and shout "Freedom!" Slowly walk towards the Ukrainian soldiers and fulfill their demands."
Not a single Korean soldier violated either his oath or allied obligations. It was important for Pyongyang to gain experience in modern combat operations, to study the tactics and technologies of a potential enemy (the "collective West") and to acquire knowledge that was inaccessible due to the sanctions regime. And these tasks were accomplished. But the Koreans also made a significant contribution to the defeat of the Ukrainian group on our soil within the framework of a comprehensive bilateral agreement.
Their arrival allowed us not to ease the pressure on other sections of the front, to continue the offensive in Donbass and to inflict enormous damage on the invasion group, which consisted of 95 (!) battalions.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian soldiers fighting in Kursk describe North Koreans — previously dubbed “cannon fodder” that will “defect as soon as they get to fight” — as highly skilled, fearless and motivated infantry.
“They have been blowing themselves up when they see capture is in sight,” Lieutenant Colonel Yaroslav Chepurnyi, a spokesman of the Ukrainian army, told POLITICO on Monday.
In fact, read below as the Ukrainian Colonel repeats virtually word for word what Alexander Kots wrote earlier:
Ukrainian soldiers describe the North Korean soldiers as being very far from inexperienced cannon fodder.
“They are young, motivated, physically fit, brave, and good at using small arms. They are also disciplined. They have everything you need for a good infantryman,” Chepurnyi said.
Yuriy Bondar, a Ukrainian soldier with the 80th separate airborne assault brigade, said North Korean soldiers have extremely good physical training and have stable morale.
The Ukrainians uncharacteristically spared no praise:
“They demonstrate psychological resilience. Imagine, one runs and attracts attention and the other from an ambush shoots down a drone with aimed fire,” Bondar said, claiming that underestimation of the enemy will always lead to a defeat.
They even said Wagner are like “children” compared to the DPRK super soldiers:
“As one commander said, compared to the soldiers of the DPRK, Wagner mercenaries circa 2022 are just children. And I believe him,” Bondar said.
Surely such reports will serve to deflate South Korea’s over-confidence a skosh or two.
But! “Doesn’t this news suggest Russian weakness, such that Putin desperately needed to beg Kim for troops to save Kursk?” I hear you ask.
Well, actually US intel agencies already confirmed to NYT that the DPRK troops to Russia pipeline came at North Korea’s initiative, not Russia’s:
When North Korean troops began arriving in Russia this fall, some Western officials believed it was a sign that the Kremlin had reached out in a desperate need for more soldiers.
But U.S. intelligence agencies have now assessed that the deployment was North Korea’s idea and not Russia’s, though President Vladimir V. Putin quickly embraced it, American officials say.
The reason is obvious: any intelligent and forward-thinking leader would jump at the priceless opportunity to test and hone his troops in modern combat, particularly one undergoing rapid evolutionary changes. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to imbibe real-world lessons to pass them down through the domestic military structure. Of course, NYT adds another plausible explanation to the mix: Kim was hoping to curry favor for future support from Russia.
It may not be until the end of the war that we discover the true extent to which North Korea supported Russia, but many Western sources claim that support has been much vaster than is commonly suspected:
As the Kursk operation “officially” comes to a close, here are the final figures of Ukrainian losses given out by the Russian MOD:
During 9 months of fighting, the enemy lost:
more than 76,550 military personnel,
412 tanks,
341 infantry fighting vehicles,
314 armored personnel carriers,
2,297 other armoured fighting vehicles,
2,803 vehicles,
647 self-propelled artillery units and field artillery pieces,
64 multiple launch rocket launchers, including 15 HIMARS and seven MLRS manufactured in the United States,
31 launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, 11 transport and loading vehicles,
134 electronic warfare stations,
13 air defense radars, 22 counter-battery radars,
64 units of engineering and other equipment, including 23 engineering barrier vehicles, an UR-77 mine clearance unit, five bridge-laying machines, an engineering reconnaissance vehicle, as well as 16 armored repair and evacuation vehicles, a command and staff vehicle and five electronic intelligence radars.
Of course, Russia lost a huge amount of equipment here as well, and the entire saga was marred by various failures of military leadership in this sector. Hundreds of civilians have now been confirmed slaughtered, with many women and young girls raped by AFU and mercenaries. This unfortunately does fall on the early incompetence and failures of Russian leadership to amply defend the borders.
For instance, Russian border guards noted in interviews that at the initial stage of the operation they had “very little” surveillance and drones available in this sector, which allowed the Ukrainian sneak attack to quickly breach the border. Furthermore, one of the military leaders in charge of building the Kursk region fortifications was arrested on criminal embezzlement charges, which likely had some effect on the early ability to resist.
The troubles were compounded by the fact that Ukraine sent some of its best and most elite brigades here, armed with top tier NATO gear like Abrams, Challengers, Leopards, and everything in between, including many “elite” Western mercenaries who were ex-special forces, etc. They were initially up against third tier Russian troops, conscripts, border guards, and the like, which explains the deep penetrations. But eventually, more elite Russian units were transferred, such as the 106th and 76th Airborne Divisions of the VDV, as well as the scrappy 155th and 810th Marines, Akhmat ‘Aida’ special forces, and of course the DPRK units—though their total number remains unknown.
Lastly, here is a translation of the full Gerasimov report to Putin done by East_Calling:
I point you to the 5:30 mark where Gerasimov reports to Putin that:
“In accordance with your instructions, the creation of a security zone in the border areas of the Sumy region of Ukraine continues. Four settlements have been liberated. The total area of the controlled territory is more than 90 square kilometers.”
One Russian analysis:
What we can expect from Sumy is the creation of a buffer zone on the border of a dimension not so different from the area north of Kharkov with the aim of avoiding a new operation in Kursk and further damaging the Ukrainian command in its management and sending of resources to other fronts. This dynamic has already begun in February and has allowed Russian forces to seize some localities. It is possible that the advance will continue a few kilometres further inland, reaching two important points or zones: the first is the Psel River, a natural barrier that would allow them to secure attacks from the south and force Ukraine to send reinforcements that could be used to penetrate Belgorod. The second is the town of Yunakivka, the main urban area in the region, the capture of which would provide a logistical node from which to expand control southwards as a future possibility. However, it is possible that this locality could become a new Vovchansk, ending in a long positional battle.
Recall that Ukraine has already long begun evacuating up to two dozen border settlements in the Sumy region in preparation.
I’ll leave you with this famous statement by Zelensky on the Kursk operation:
What do you think, was this ‘biggest win’ worth it in the end?
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This is bad news for South Korea. I doubt that they have large numbers of hard-core troops like the North has deployed to Ukraine. And with a Total Fertility Rate of 0.75 vs. the North’s at 1.75, they are unlikely to have them in the future.
Trying to defeat Russia using Ukrainians as cannon fodder for the profits of the West is not just a fool's errand but deeply immoral.
This is bad news for South Korea. I doubt that they have large numbers of hard-core troops like the North has deployed to Ukraine. And with a Total Fertility Rate of 0.75 vs. the North’s at 1.75, they are unlikely to have them in the future.