The military did not specify the exact date of the battle but noted that Ukrainian infantry and snipers, equipped with small arms and grenade launchers, held off the North Korean army's advance on Ukrainian positions for over eight hours.

A thousand North Korean troops who have been fighting in the Kursk region of Russia have been killed in Vladimir Putin ’s war with Ukraine, officials have said. Western officials have told the BBC that 36 per cent of North Korean forces fighting in Russia had been killed, injured or captured by mid-January.

Reports indicate that reinforcements are expected for North Korean troops fighting in the Russian Kursk region amid heavy losses.