The North Korean troops, who have been fighting alongside Russia, have temporarily withdrawn from one of the axes of Kursk oblast where Ukraine’s 73rd Special Operation Forces (SOF) centre is deployed, colonel Oleksandr Kindratenko, an SOF spokesperson, told the Kyiv Independent.

The North Korean troops fighting for Russia are highly trained and will stop at nothing to avoid surrender, Ukrainian sources tell Sam Kiley, The Independent’s World Affairs Editor, in Sumy

A captured North Korean soldier has said he did not know he was being sent to fight in a war in Russia and that Pyongyang’s troops are suffering major losses in battle, according to a video released by Ukraine.

North Korea is preparing to send additional troops to Russia, despite their role as “human bait” on the battlefield, a report has warned.

A Ukrainian special forces commander says North Korean troops have moved back from the fighting for roughly a fortnight

British intelligence has reported that one-third of the troops deployed alongside Russian forces in Ukraine are already out of action. Pyongyang sent a contingent of 12,000 soldiers to Russia to assist local forces in regaining lost territory in the Kursk region,