North Korean troops performing well on battlefield, say Russian bloggers

North Korean troops have captured a village from Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, Russian military bloggers have reported.

They said “North Korean special forces” had endured a “baptism of fire” in the battle for Plekhovo, which had been fought over for several weeks.

“They walked 2km through a minefield, broke into the village with lightning speed and then destroyed the occupying contingent of Ukrainian Wehrmacht,” Yuri Kotenok told his 400,000 subscribers on social media app Telegram, deploying a Russian propaganda reference to Ukrainians as Nazis.

Western intelligence said Russia has deployed up to 12,000 North Korean conscripts to help recapture the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces carved out a foothold in August.

Mr Kotenok, who is regarded as well-connected to the Russian army, said the North Koreans took about two-and-a-half hours to capture Plekhovo last Friday.

Late on Thursday, he reported: “They didn’t take any prisoners and they won’t take them in the future, either.”

The North Korean attack on Ukrainian positions cannot be independently verified but several other Russian military bloggers also reported it.

The Two Majors military blog said that North Korean forces acted collectively under the call sign “Kim” for the mission that the Russian Ministry of Defence has declined to formally recognise.

‘Comrade Kim Jong-un can be proud’

Another Russian military blogger, Colonel Cassad, was less discreet.

He told his 900,000 Telegram subscribers: “Our North Korean comrades have undergone a baptism of fire effectively. Comrade Kim Jong-un can be proud.”

The US-based Institute for the Study of War confirmed that the Kremlin’s forces had captured Plekhovo but did not report the involvement of North Korean forces.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, is pushing on his forces ahead of the inauguration of Donald Trump as the US president on Jan 20. Mr Trump is expected to try to impose a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine and Putin wants to capture as much territory as possible beforehand.

Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, has indicated that he would enter talks with Putin but he wants Ukraine to join Nato, which the Russian leader has ruled out.

In Ukraine, Russia launched one of its heaviest bombardments for weeks.

Russian missiles hit energy production and transmission sites in the western regions of Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Kirovohrad.

Officials said nobody was killed in the attacks but that energy infrastructure had been badly damaged.

Dawn attack

Svitlana Onyshchuk, the governor of the Ivano-Frankivsk region, said: “At dawn, the enemy used attack drones and cruise missiles. They targeted critical infrastructure facilities.”

The Kremlin said it had launched the attack in retaliation for a Ukrainian strike using US-made Atacms missiles on the port of Taganrog on Wednesday.

Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s defence shot down 81 of 93 Russian missiles, some using F-16 fighter jets that Nato states have given Kyiv.

He said: “This is Putin’s ‘peace’ plan, to destroy everything. This is how he wants ‘negotiations’, by terrorising millions of people.”

Ukrenergo, the Ukrainian state energy company, reported widespread blackouts immediately after the attack.

The US-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Kremlin has “waged a systematic campaign” to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure ahead of winter.

It said: “By punishing the population, the Kremlin seeks to compel Ukrainian leaders to end the war quickly and on terms favourable to Russia.”

On the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas, Russian forces continued to move forward.

Ukrainian generals have warned that Russian forces are massing towards the city of Pokrovsk and are close to capturing Kurakhove in the southern sector of the front line.