North Korean troops deployed in Russia's Kursk region are suffering heavy losses and being left unprotected by the Russian forces they are fighting alongside, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday.
Zelenskiy, in his nightly video address, said Russian troops were sending the North Koreans into battle with minimal protection and that North Koreans were taking extreme measures to avoid being taken prisoner.
"Their losses are massive, very massive. We witness that neither the Russian forces nor their North Korean masters are interested in keeping these North Koreans alive, he added.
"Everything is prepared in such a way that it is not possible for us to catch them. There are instances where they are killed by their own troops. Russians send them to attacks with little security."
Ukrainian and Western intelligence reports say there are around 12,000 North Korean troops in Kursk, a Russian region on the border where Ukrainian forces are holding chunks of territory after staging an incursion in August.
Earlier this week, Zelenskiy said more than 3,000 North Koreans had been killed or wounded.
He said Ukrainian forces had managed to take a few North Korean soldiers prisoner "but they were severely wounded and it was not possible to save their lives".
Zelenskiy said the Korean people "should not be losing their lives in battles in Europe. This is something that Korea's neighbours, including China, can influence."
"If China is serious about the declaration that the war should not spill over, it should have appropriate pressure on Pyongyang".
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