kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops clashed for the first time with North Korean units that were recently deployed to assist Russia in the war with its neighbor, Ukraine’s Defense Minister said on Tuesday.

Another Kyiv official said Ukraine’s military fired artillery at North Korean soldiers in The Russian border region of Kursk.

The comments were the first official reports that Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in combat, following a deployment that has seen the war a new complexion as you approach your 1,000 day milestone.

None of the claims could be independently confirmed.

Ukrainian and North Korean troops engaged in “small-scale” fighting that marked the beginning of Pyongyang’s direct involvement in Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told the station. ​South Korean public broadcaster, KBS, in an interview.

Russian servicemen examine Ukrainian military vehicles at an exhibition presenting military equipment captured from kyiv forces during fighting in Ukraine, during Russia’s National Unity Day in St. Petersburg, Russia, Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. (Photo AP/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Dmitri Lovetsky

The North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are poorly identified on their uniforms, Umerov told KBS. That makes it difficult to say whether there were North Korean victims, he said.

Umerov reportedly said he expects five North Korean units, each consisting of about 3,000 troops, to be deployed to the Kursk area.

Meanwhile, Andrii Kovalenko, head of the counter-disinformation branch of the Ukrainian Security Council, said that “the first North Korean troops have already been bombed in the Kursk region.”

He did not provide further details.

Western governments had expected North Korean soldiers to be sent to Russia’s Kursk border region, where a three-month incursion by the Ukrainian army is the first occupation of Russian territory since World War II and has embarrassed the Kremlin.

Intelligence assessments from the United States, South Korea and Ukraine say Pyongyang is sending up to 12,000 North Korean combat troops to the war. under a pact with Moscow.

The Pentagon said Monday that at least 10,000 North Korean troops were in Russia near the border with Ukraine.

More troops from North Korea’s 1.3 million army may be deployed to Russia, according to an analysis published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank.

The ramifications extend far beyond Europe, he said.

“Despite integration challenges, including communication barriers and different military doctrines, the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia represents a significant change in European and Asian security relations,” the analysis says. “For the first time in generations, East Asian troops are actively participating in a European conflict.”

North Korean troops, whose combat quality and combat experience are unknown, are adding to Ukraine’s worsening situation on the battlefield.

Ukrainian defenses, especially in the eastern Donetsk region, are collapsing under the pressure of the costly but relentless months-long Russian attack.

Russian advances have accelerated recently, with battlefield advances of up to 9 kilometers (more than 5 miles) in some parts of Donetsk, the UK Ministry of Defense said on social platform X on Tuesday.

He said Russia has superior troop numbers and, despite heavy casualties, the Kremlin’s recruiting drive is providing enough new troops to keep up the pressure.

Russia has maintained the battlefield initiative in Ukraine for the past year. ukrainian officials they have complained for a long time that Western military support takes too long to reach the country.

In early October, Russian forces expelled Ukrainian troops from Vuhledara tactically important hilltop city in eastern Ukraine.

It was part of a key belt of Ukrainian defenses in the east. Russia’s next targets are likely to be the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk and the strategically important city of Chasiv Yar.

Meanwhile, Russia has continued its long-range airstrikes against civilian areas of Ukraine, officials say.

An attack Tuesday morning in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed six people and wounded 23 others, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said Russian attacks “must be stopped with strong actions.”

“A stronger position is needed from (Ukraine’s Western) allies,” he wrote on Telegram.

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