Deputy Head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Vadim Skibitsky said in an interview with the BBC that North Korea is preparing to send a significant number of military personnel to Russia. Before this, it was already reported that Moscow received ballistic missiles from the DPRK to attack Ukraine.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence data obtained by the BBC, as of August 2026, there are about 8.5 thousand North Korean military personnel in Russia. Four brigades were formed from them, which operate as part of the Russian group of troops “North”.
These military personnel do not take an active part in the battles in Ukraine; their task is to cover the state border of the Russian Federation, the Main Intelligence Directorate notes.
The average age of North Korean military personnel is up to 30 years old, Ukrainian intelligence reports. According to her, the North Korean contingent on the territory of the Russian Federation is rotating, and the total number of military personnel who were involved in this operation is 23-25 thousand people.
Earlier it was reported about the participation of military personnel from the DPRK in battles in the Kursk region, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces began operating in August 2024.
Ukraine states that the DPRK not only handed over a batch of ballistic missiles to Russia, but is also preparing to send a new large contingent of military personnel there.
“Today, according to our information, from 30 to 50 thousand North Korean soldiers can be deployed on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Vadim Skibitsky, deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said in an interview with the BBC. “We are closely monitoring this situation. Because this, first of all, is the presence of foreigners on Russian territory and the support of the Russian Federation in the war.”
The main task of these troops, Skibitsky noted, is the defense of the territory of the Russian Federation. This requires certain logistics support, engineering work and preparation of military facilities on Russian territory.
Ukrainian intelligence, however, has no information that these military personnel could be sent to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.
“We do not have any documents or plans from the Russian Federation to deploy this unit on our territory. After all, what does this mean? This is the real participation of a third country in the war on our territory,” said the deputy head of the Main Intelligence Directorate.
According to him, the involvement of the DPRK military to help the Russian Federation will allow Pyongyang to gain real combat experience in modern warfare, in particular in the use of drones.
Thanks to cooperation with Russia, North Korea has also been able to improve its ballistic missile production technology, Skibitsky notes.
As for the Russian Federation, attracting a large contingent of North Koreans to cover the border will allow it to transfer its own troops to increase the Russian group on the territory of Ukraine, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
The DPRK military was involved in hostilities against the Ukrainian army only at the end of 2024 - beginning of 2025 during the fighting in the Kursk region.
In August 2024, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were able to break through the border and enter Russian territory. A part of the Kursk region in the area of the city of Sudzha with an area of about 1 thousand square meters came under Ukrainian control. km.
In the fall of the same year, the Kremlin turned to Pyongyang for help, and it sent about 11 thousand soldiers to the Russian Federation. With their help, the Russian army was able to drive the Ukrainians out of the territory of the Kursk region by the beginning of spring 2025.
According to rough estimates, the DPRK lost about 2.3 thousand military personnel in those battles.
The BBC spoke with a Ukrainian soldier from the 95th Brigade of the Air Assault Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who directly encountered soldiers from the DPRK on the battlefield.
Andrei Lugovoi (call sign “Sultan”) worked in the film industry before the war, and in July 2024 began serving in the intelligence unit of the 95th brigade.
After the fighting in the Donetsk region, his unit was transferred to the Kursk region, where he had to fight against the DPRK troops.
He says Russia initially used North Korean soldiers solely as “cannon fodder.” “They didn't understand what was happening. They knew they had to move forward, but they didn't know where they were going or what exactly they needed to do. The Russians took advantage of this,” explains Sultan.
“For example, one North Korean soldier could be ordered to take a position, dig in and hold it. Communication with North Korean forces was kept to a minimum, so there was little interaction or exchange of information. They were just taking a position, not knowing what to do next.”
However, over time, the tactics of the DPRK troops changed, says Lugovoi.
As a Ukrainian Armed Forces fighter notes, the Koreans began to act more carefully and changed the size of their assault groups.
Were there significant differences in combat between Russians and North Korean soldiers? Andrei Lugovoi says yes. “They were moving faster. If Russian soldiers came under fire or heard something, they immediately hid - behind a tree, dived into the nearest trench hole, or buried themselves. The North Koreans acted differently. They were constantly moving. This gave them a certain advantage, but not a decisive one.”
According to him, Korean soldiers were not inclined to lie down and engage in a firefight before attempting to advance. Instead, they constantly kept moving, running and trying to outflank the enemy.
During the entire battle, Ukrainian troops managed to capture only two soldiers of the DPRK army.
The military man of the 95th brigade explains this by saying that the Koreans did not know any other language, in particular Russian or English, so they simply did not understand when they were asked to surrender.
“They don't understand anything. I think this was one of the reasons why only two of them were accidentally captured. If they had learned at least some words or the language of Russia - a neighboring country, so to speak - or at least a little English, they would have been captured much more often,” “Sultan” is sure.
He explains the high losses among Koreans during the fighting in the Kursk region, in particular, by the fact that they had much worse equipment than Russian soldiers.
“When we searched a Russian soldier, we could find documents, personal belongings and so on. For example, different types of shovels and tools - things that they needed to strengthen positions, maintain defenses or attack. But when we searched the North Koreans, the only thing we found on them was just ammunition.”
“And then Russian soldiers came later with the necessary supplies and food and consolidated the positions. They were like puppets who ran forward, shot and died,” he says.
