This was reported by the SSO.
The advance of North Korean soldiers was held back using small arms and grenade launchers. Snipers were also active.
According to military sources, by the ninth hour of combat, the CCO group had only one-third of their ammunition left—the rest was spent on eliminating the invaders. During the clash, 21 soldiers of the DPRK were killed, and another 40 were injured.
“The operators made the decision for exfiltration—a military tactic for quickly extracting the group from the battlefield to a safe location. The fighters coordinated their exit to two Humvees,” the SSO reported.
In October 2024, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had received information about Russia preparing two units of North Korean troops, each consisting of 6,000 personnel.
Later, the GUR of the Ministry of Defense confirmed the arrival of the first DPRK units in the Kursk region. On November 7, news emerged about the first casualties among North Koreans in battles in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation.
On January 11, it was reported that Ukrainian forces captured the first two soldiers from North Korea in the Kursk region of Russia. They sustained injuries but survived. They were taken to Kyiv, where investigators from the SBU are communicating with them.
Following this, Ukraine announced that it is willing to return North Korea's soldiers if the country helps arrange an exchange for Ukrainian fighters held by Russia.