Russia and North Korea have not commented on Ukraine’s claim that some 30 North Korean troops have been killed or injured in fighting.

Ukraine’s military intelligence and the Pentagon have said that Ukrainian troops have killed and injured a number of North Korean troops fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk border region.

Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as GUR, said on Monday that North Korean army units had suffered “significant losses” with “at least 30 soldiers” killed and wounded in the Kursk region, near the villages of Plekhovo, Vorobzha and Martynovka.

“Also in the area of ​​the village of Kurilovka, at least three North Korean servicemen went missing,” the GUR added in a statement posted to its Telegram channel on Monday.

Speaking to journalists in Washington, DC, Pentagon spokesperson Major-General Pat Ryder backed up the Ukrainian Army’s claim, saying that the United States had found “indications” North Korean troops had been “killed and injured” in combat in Kursk.

The Kremlin, which rarely provides details on casualties among its troops and those of its allies, directed a request for comment from the Associated Press news agency to the Russian Ministry of Defence, which did not immediately reply.

According to South Korean, US and Ukrainian intelligence, an estimated 11,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia to fight on the front lines against Ukrainian forces.

Most of the North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia’s Kursk region, which has been under partial Ukrainian control since Kyiv’s surprise incursion into Russian territory in August.

Analysts say the North Korean troops face potential challenges including a lack of combat experience and language barriers. Their reported deployment has not been officially acknowledged by Pyongyang or Moscow, however, the two countries have openly deepened their military ties in recent months.

A landmark mutual defence treaty, first signed in Pyongyang on June 19 during Russian President Vladimir Putin’s lavish state visit, obliges both countries to provide immediate military assistance to each other using “all means” necessary if either faces “aggression”.

Russia relying on foreign fighters to bolster numbers

As Russia’s war on Ukraine drags on, Moscow has reportedly been relying on misleading tactics to recruit foreign fighters to bolster its numbers on the front line as the death toll among troops mounts.

There have been reports that men from South Asian countries – including Nepal, India and Sri Lanka – who have gone to fight in the war as mercenaries have been sent directly to the front, while also being deprived of their salaries. Earlier this year, Nepali men who spoke to Al Jazeera said they thought they would be used as backup, due to their lack of military training, but were pushed to the front lines.

Both Russia and Ukraine rarely provide specific details on the numbers of their own troops that have been killed or injured in the war since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Russian media outlet Mediazona reported in September that more than 71,000 Russian soldiers have been identified and confirmed to have been killed in Ukraine. Ukraine’s General Staff claimed that, as of October 1, more than 654,000 Russian personnel have been killed in the war.

Russia’s Defence Ministry estimates that Kyiv has lost almost half a million troops, according to a report published in September by the RT news website.