North Korean troops are suffering heavy losses in the fighting in Russia's Kursk region and are facing logistical difficulties as a result of Ukrainian attacks, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Thursday.

North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military documents with Russian names and birthplaces, the Ukrainian military said, amid claims from Kyiv that Russia is trying to conceal the presence of foreign fighters on the battlefield.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has, for the first time, sent combatant units abroad, to aid Russia in the war in Ukraine. As noted in the Joint Statement on the DPRK’s Deployment of Troops to Russia this development indelibly connects the Indo-Pacific and European theaters,

North Korea has lost more than 3,000 troops in about two months of combat in Russia’s Kursk region, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday — and he criticized world leaders for doing “almost nothing” to counter Moscow’s alliance with Pyongyang.