North Korea has suffered more than 6,000 casualties during offensive operations in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, according to a June 15 report from the United Kingdom’s defense intelligence.

According to the report, North Korea's losses account for more than half of the approximately 11,000 troops initially deployed to Kursk in fall 2024.

U.K. intelligence attributed the high casualty rate to large, highly attritional dismounted assaults.

Open source intelligence reports have also suggested that small numbers of additional North Korea troops have been deployed to make up for the losses.

Earlier this year, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that North Korea transferred approximately 3,000 additional soldiers to Russia in January and February.

North Korea has emerged as a key military ally of Russia through its invasion of Ukraine, supplying Moscow with artillery shells, missiles, and even soldiers in exchange for oil products and advanced military technology, such as ballistic missile upgrades.

In April 2025, Russia confirmed for the first time that North Korean forces were fighting alongside Russian troops in Kursk, although North Korean troops have been reportedly involved since fall 2024.

Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, marking the first large-scale invasion of Russian territory by foreign forces since World War II. The operation aimed to disrupt a planned Russian offensive on the neighboring Sumy Oblast and draw Russian forces away from the embattled Donbas region.

Russia launched a push to recapture the region in early March 2025, with Ukraine being forced to pull back from much of the initially taken territory.

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The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed, wounded, or gone missing while fighting alongside Russian forces in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, according to a new report from UK intelligence.

The British Ministry of Defence, in its 15 June intelligence update, states that around half of the estimated 11,000 North Korean troops deployed to the area have become casualties.

A costly campaign tied to Ukraine’s cross-border offensive

In August 2024, Ukraine launched a rare cross-border operation into Kursk, briefly capturing territory and forcing Russia to redeploy troops. While initially successful, the campaign was eventually reversed. By March 2025, Ukrainian forces had withdrawn, ending the offensive without holding ground. However, Kyiv claims the operation disrupted Russian logistics and diverted enemy forces from other fronts.

High casualty rates from brutal ground combat

“Significant D​PRK casualty rates have almost certainly been sustained primarily through large, highly attritional dismounted assaults,” the report said, pointing to intense and costly infantry engagements on the ground.

UK intelligence analysts believe these tactics are leading to unsustainable losses for North Korean units involved in front-line fighting.

Shoigu holds talks with Kim Jong-un

On 4 June, Russia’s Security Council Secretary and former Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea for the second time in three months. He met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, signaling deepening military coordination between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Shoigu is believed to be the Kremlin’s lead negotiator managing North Korea’s military support for Russia’s war effort against Ukraine.

North Korean involvement confined to Kursk—for now

As of mid-June, North Korea’s military activity remains limited to the Kursk direction. According to UK intelligence, any expansion beyond Russian borders—particularly into internationally recognized Ukrainian territory—would almost certainly require joint authorization from both Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un.

Casualty estimates reflect rising toll

In April, a South Korean lawmaker citing intelligence sources reported that about 600 North Koreans had died in the conflict. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in January, estimated that 4,000 North Korean troops had been killed or wounded.

Later, on 25 April, Ukraine’s General Staff announced that more than 4,500 North Korean troops had been neutralized since the launch of the Kursk offensive.

Ukraine shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet in Russia's Kursk Oblast on the morning of June 7, the Air Force reported.

Although no details of the operation were disclosed, the downing brings the total number of Russian aircraft destroyed since the start of the full-scale invasion to 414, according to Ukraine's General Staff.

Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in August 2024, marking the first large-scale invasion of Russian territory by foreign forces since World War II.  

Reinforced by North Korean troops, Russia launched a push to recapture the region in early March, with Ukraine being forced to pull back from much of the initially taken territory, including the town of Sudzha.

The downing of the Su-35 fighter jet also adds to the losses Ukraine has inflicted on the Russian Air Force over the past week.

On June 1, Ukraine launched its Operation Spiderweb, conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), reportedly hitting 41 Russian bomber planes and other aircraft. According to Kyiv, Ukraine inflicted $7 billion in damage and disabled over a third of Russia's strategic bomber fleet.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently confirm the number of planes allegedly damaged and destroyed by the SBU. At least 21 planes were damaged or destroyed, according to open-source intelligence analysts.

The SBU said 117 drones, launched from concealed trucks positioned across Russian territory, simultaneously struck airfields in at least four regions, including sites thousands of kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

The targeted air bases reportedly housed Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers, essential carriers of long-range cruise missiles used in Moscow's air strikes on Ukrainian cities.

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The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Russian forces are amassing more than 50,000 troops in the northeastern Sumy direction, aiming to establish a “buffer zone,” while conducting continuous offensive operations along the front lines.

“They [Russians] are now accumulating troops in the Sumy direction. More than 50,000. We understand this. But we have successes there. Today [27 May] we took, for example, 8 prisoners in the Tyotkino area [a settlement in Russia’s Kursk Oblast],” Zelenskyy said during a conversation with journalists on 27 May, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

The Ukrainian leader indicated that despite constant Russian attacks, Moscow has been unable to execute a major breakthrough operation on the frontline.

Moscow aims to establish what officials term a “buffer zone” extending 10 kilometers (6 miles) into Ukrainian territory, though Zelenskyy expressed doubt about Russian capabilities to achieve this goal.

He indicated that Russian objectives also include crossing into eastern Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, and capturing the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast, though these efforts have not succeeded.

Previously, Russian sources circulated claims that the Russian forces had crossed into the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast but the Ukrainian side emphasized that its defenses repelled the attack, killing all invading Russian soldiers.

However, Zelenskyy noted that the Russians cannot completely “withdraw all their troops from the Pokrovsk direction” and transfer them to Sumy Oblast. 

 “Just as they could not transfer all troops to the Pokrovsk direction to capture Pokrovsk,” he stated, highlighting the multi-front nature of the conflict.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) corroborated the strategic shift in its 26 May report, noting Russian force transfers from Donetsk to Sumy Oblast as evidence of changing offensive priorities.

The ISW also analyzed that Russia’s ambitions to establish a buffer zone in Ukraine’s Sumy Oblast are unlikely to succeed in the near future. Despite recent Russian cross-border attacks and attempts to seize territory in the region, Russian forces lack the necessary manpower and resources to achieve significant breakthroughs or hold substantial territory. Ukrainian defenses remain strong, and the villages targeted by Russian advances are mostly empty or evacuated, limiting the strategic value of these operations.

In March 2025, Zelenskyy predicted renewed Russian spring offensives targeting Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts, with Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi confirming in April that such operations had commenced.

In early May, Sumy regional administration head Mykhailo Melnyk urged residents of border towns to evacuate to safer locations amid escalating attacks and threats of a new offensive. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin also publicly discussed establishing a “security buffer zone” along the Ukrainian border, specifically referencing the situation in Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions that border northern Ukraine.

According to regional officials, four settlements in Sumy Oblast currently remain under Russian occupation, including Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka, and Zhuravka.