Ukraine’s special forces found documents, military tickets, notes, phones and equipment early this year on the bodies of North Korean soldiers killed in Kursk, a Russian region that borders Ukraine.
Anton Shtuka for NPR
SUMY, Ukraine — During more than three years of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine, the front line has also served as a kind of vicious, real-time classroom.
Both Ukraine and Russia have made, and learned from, mistakes. So, too, has North Korea — which last fall sent 11,000 elite soldiers to support Russia’s military in the Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainians had made a surprise incursion last summer.
North Korean troops’ progress — especially in drone warfare — has potential implications not only for Russia’s war on Ukraine but also peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Across the border from Kursk, in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region, Ukrainian soldiers who battled those soldiers described how the North Koreans went from suffering massive losses to learning electronic warfare.
Voice of Ukraine 