A Ukrainian soldier approaches a wounded North Korean soldier on the battlefield. As the Ukrainian soldier pulls on the leg of the North Korean soldier to check if he is still alive, the North Korean lets out a scream in Korean and then detonates a grenade on his own head. The Ukrainian soldier jumps back and retaliates with gunfire. The last words of the North Korean soldier were unexpectedly, “General Kim Jong Un.”
The Ukrainian soldier told a CNN reporter that North Korean soldiers can recklessly engage in combat until they are eliminated. Despite efforts to request their surrender, these individuals still choose to fight.
On the battlefield, North Korean soldiers would rather detonate their own grenades to commit suicide than surrender. They use their comrades as bait to lure Ukrainian attack drones. They even remove their own body armor and helmets to advance more rapidly and launch attacks. What’s even more brutal is that the North Korean army does not allow their soldiers to be captured.
A soldier named Amur revealed to CNN, “We found many North Korean soldiers who were shot in the back of the head.” It appears that on the battlefield, many North Korean soldiers are being taken down by their comrades.
These tactics, bordering on brutality, have resulted in significant casualties within the North Korean military. According to Western intelligence estimates, out of the 12,000 North Korean soldiers deployed to Russia, 4,000 have already died or been injured. According to Ukrainian statistics, at least half of the North Korean soldiers have been casualties on the battlefield.
Watching a video, we see dozens of North Korean soldiers in the wilderness, even without tanks or armored vehicles, clearly visible to Ukrainian drones. After sustaining heavy casualties from Ukrainian artillery attacks, the North Koreans have achieved no military success.
Ukrainian soldiers evaluated that North Korean soldiers are young, well-trained, and have strong willpower. However, they have never faced drones in combat and were only prepared for warfare from the 1980s. The soldiers, in order to move swiftly, even removed their bulletproof helmets and heavy body armor to attack Ukrainian positions more rapidly. Ukrainian soldiers also noted their high mobility and fast running speeds, making it challenging to capture them. However, their backpacks only contain a minimal amount of water, with a small bottle carrying a maximum of 1 liter, and lacking additional warm clothing, hats, scarves, or anything else. Their equipment seems to be modern Russian weapons, such as the AK-12 assault rifle, the latest model from the outdated AK-47, with each person able to carry around 10 magazines and 5 to 10 grenades.
Although these North Korean soldiers display strong combat will, they completely lack experience in dealing with drones. Ukrainian soldiers mentioned that their units could eliminate about 30 enemy troops in a day just by throwing grenades at them, as the North Koreans didn’t comprehend what to do.
According to a report by The New York Times, due to massive casualties, North Korean troops are no longer present on the frontline of the Ukrainian war. The reason behind this is quite understandable. While the soldiers demonstrate strong combat will and fearlessness towards personal life and death, they lack experience in modern warfare, especially when facing drones.
Furthermore, North Korean soldiers also lack coordination with the Russian forces. On the frontline of the Ukrainian war, after receiving combat orders from Russian commanders, North Korean troops would quickly launch attacks regardless of casualties. The Russians let them pass through minefields, only to face fierce Ukrainian artillery attacks.
However, they completely lack armored vehicle support, artillery support, or air force support. Such tactics are not even reminiscent of World War II but rather of World War I tactics. In WWII, emphasis was placed on infantry-tank cooperation, infantry-artillery cooperation, and cooperation between infantry and artillery. When infantry encounters enemy strongholds, they should call for rear artillery for fire support.
When North Korean soldiers arrive on the battlefield, they can only rely on themselves. Consequently, with severe losses, they have to retreat, which is not surprising.
While Russia doesn’t see much advancement in Kurask, they have achieved results on the Donbas battlefield. Last week, Russia launched an offensive in the southeastern part of Donbas at the small town of Donovoserka, with the Ukrainian forces admitting to withdrawing from most of the town. Over the past month, Russia has conducted a comprehensive offensive against the town from the south, northeast, and west.
An official from the Ukrainian 110th Brigade, responsible for defending the area, explained in an interview that the Ukrainian forces were fighting with a river at their back, making operations extremely complex. In the past two weeks, ammunition and food had to be delivered to the front line by drones, and reinforcements coming from behind had to cross the river, making military operations even more challenging.
In fact, as of mid-January, Russia had already semi-encircled Donovoserka, occupying settlements in the north and south while cutting off all roads leading out of the town. About half a month ago, I predicted on the program that the town would fall within a month.
During the final battle for the town, Russia launched ruthless small-scale infantry attacks, sending out groups of approximately five every hour. They moved under the cover of the forest, making it hard for drones to detect them, and once they reached buildings, they would hide in basements. Ukraine attempted to eliminate them using drones and artillery but the drones’ bombs were not powerful enough to destroy the basements, and the artillery often required multiple adjustments to precisely hit the targets. To prevent Russia from occupying the buildings, Ukraine needed to send more soldiers. However, in that direction, Ukraine lacked personnel, while the number of Russian soldiers was three times that of the Ukrainian forces. Ultimately, the Ukrainian military chose to successfully retreat under the cover of dense fog, avoiding significant casualties and surrenders.
Donovoserka served as the starting point for Ukraine’s southern offensive in the summer of 2023, where Ukraine captured several villages like Urozain. However, in the past year, Ukraine not only lost all the territories gained during the summer counteroffensive but also had the stronghold from which the offensive was launched, Donovoserka, occupied. This indicates a grim situation for Ukraine along the Donbas frontline.
In Torske, 80 miles northeast of the town, fighting continues fiercely, with most of the city already captured by Russian forces. This week, Ukrainian President Zelensky dispatched Ground Forces Commander Lieutenant General Drapazhai to personally command the forces in the Donetsk region, indicating a significant challenge for Ukraine in that area.
In the direction of Red Army Village, battles are still intense. Last Friday, the Ukrainian General Staff stated that Ukrainian forces repelled 71 attacks launched by Russia in 24 hours along that direction. This means that half of the attacks along the entire thousand-kilometer frontline were concentrated in the direction of Red Army Village.
Based on the current situation, Russian forces are advancing north from the small village of Shevchenko in the south towards Red Army Village and have severed a railway and Highway 0406 to the west. For Ukraine, the primary task now is to halt the Russian advance west of Red Army Village. While Ukrainian forces still control two retreat or supply routes – one leading directly north to Highway T-0515 and another to the northwest on Highway M-30, along with a railway – all these routes fall within the range of Russian long-range artillery, indicating a precarious situation.
Footage of the battlefield reveals that Red Army Village is in ruins, with bomb blast marks visible everywhere, rendering the city nearly deserted.
In contrast, the strategic value of Donovoserka, which had a pre-war population of only 5,000, pales in comparison to Red Army Village. Red Army Village, with a population of 100,000, holds significant anthracite coal mines for Ukraine and serves as a crucial transportation hub in the southern Donbas, sitting at the confluence of multiple roads and two railways. If Russia gains complete control of Red Army Village, not only would it significantly enhance Russian logistical supply capabilities, but it would also allow Russia to launch multi-directional assaults on Ukrainian positions in the future.
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“Exploration Times” (new channel “Military Intelligence Bureau”) produced by the program group.