North Koreans ‘blow themselves up with grenades rather than risk capture’, say Ukraine soldiers

Published

3 days ago

January 27, 2025

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North Korean troops appear to have temporarily pulled back from the frontline in Russia after suffering heavy losses, a Ukrainian special forces commander has told Sky News.

The commander, who goes by the codename “Puls”, said Kim Jong Un‘s men were likely either learning lessons from mistakes made during their first, bloody clashes with Ukrainian soldiers, tending to their wounded or waiting for reinforcements.

“I think they’ll be back soon,” he said, speaking at a secret base in northeastern Ukraine.

Interviews with several Ukrainian troops reveal remarkable details about how the North Koreans have been fighting since they arrived on the battlefield in the Russian region of Kursk last month. This includes:

• An apparent initial lack of awareness about the threats from drones and artillery, with North Korean soldiers attacking on foot “like something out of World War Two” in groups of 20, 40 or even 60 men, making themselves easy targets

• “Brainwashing” which means they keep pushing forward despite being under Ukrainian fire and with comrades being killed and wounded around them

• A desire to remove evidence of their presence from the warzone, with North Koreans in white helmets spotted trying to recover the wounded and the dead

• A refusal to be taken alive, with claims that North Koreans have been seen blowing themselves up with grenades rather than risk capture. Puls even claimed a North Korean has been heard shouting “For General Kim Jong Un” before killing himself

• Poor coordination between North Korean and Russian forces because of the language barrier. One soldier claimed radio intercepts revealed North Koreans accidentally targeted Russian positions. He also said they would storm Ukrainian positions, suffering losses, but Russian troops would then fail to exploit the gains

• Better kit than many Russians, including rifles and uniform, but a lack of heavy armour, with North Koreans only moving on foot and using golf buggies to transport ammunition.

“They were all clean-shaven and perfectly groomed, like models,” said Puls.

“Every single one – no beards, unkempt hair, or bald heads… It was also hard to determine their age. They all looked between 25 and 35, maybe up to 40.”

North Korean troop deployment not officially confirmed

Ukraine and its Western allies say Pyongyang has sent 11,000 troops to join Russia’s war, focusing on bolstering infantry lines in the Kursk region where Ukrainian troops captured swathes of territory in a daring invasion last August.

Neither Kim Jong-Un nor Vladimir Putin have officially confirmed the deployment.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed last week that some 4,000 North Korean soldiers have already been killed or injured.

Puls commands the 1st Combat Divers Battalion of Special Operations Forces.

His elite commandos were tasked with capturing DNA samples and documents from a unit of about 25 North Korean soldiers who were killed in a drone and artillery barrage about a fortnight ago inside Kursk.

Body camera footage from the mission has been shared with Sky News. Edited clips have also been posted on social media.

Forensic samples taken

Ukrainian soldiers can be seen carefully sticking cottonwool buds into the mouths of dead North Korean troops to take samples of saliva and place them in an evidence bag.

They then remove the troops’ helmets, cutting clumps of hair and bagging them as well.

In addition, body armour is cut away so the Ukrainians can more easily access the documents and other items on each soldier, including military identity cards, dog tags, handwritten notes and photographs.

‘North Koreans only had ammo and chocolate’

One of Puls’s men, who took part in the operation and goes by the codename “Trainer”, said he was surprised that the North Koreans only had ammunition and chocolate as supplies to sustain them in the fight.

“Not a single soldier had a water bottle,” he said.

“They rely on the idea that they will storm through, take positions, and then eat and survive off our supplies.”

Asked what personal belongings he found, Trainer said: “There were letters. Of course, there were notebooks, notes. There were hand-drawn maps… There were photos of children, mothers, letters they tried to send home.”

The military identity cards were Russian – a seemingly clumsy attempt to hide the true ethnicity of the soldiers.

Trainer said some of the notes appeared to be of soldiers’ experiences in battle. He said it seemed as though they were trying to learn from their exposure to modern warfare.

“It’s the experience they are accumulating for their country, for conflicts they might face in the future,” he said.

North Koreans ‘more disciplined’

Puls described how the North Koreans fought differently from the Russians.

“They are far more disciplined, with exceptional morale and determination – completely brainwashed, really,” he said.

Puls said about a fortnight ago he noticed the North Koreans pulling back.

“The Russians are standing, working everywhere along the frontline, but no Koreans,” he said.

“Either they’re analysing their mistakes, or tending to their wounds, or maybe they’re waiting for reinforcements. There’s talk that Kim Jong-Un is sending more North Koreans here. That’s the situation.”

He said intercepted Russian communications appeared to indicate they would be returning.

“They’re still present, training or waiting for reinforcements. Something is happening, they’ll be back soon.”

World

Surreal scenes as foreign soldiers sent to Rwanda alongside Congolese troops as rebels take capital

Published

8 hours ago

January 29, 2025

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Surreal scenes as foreign soldiers sent to Rwanda alongside Congolese troops as rebels take capital

On the doorstep of Goma – the site of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping mission in the world – there are signs of surrendered soldiers and fierce battles.

As we walked on the road in front of the United Nations’ main base, we stepped around fatigues, rounds and helmets once belonging to the Congolese army fighting the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels.

The rebels now control the strategic city of Goma after fighting for the border post with Rwanda. It sits south of the swathes of mineral-rich mining territory the rebels have been seizing through last year.

We see them packed on the back of trucks still marked by the FARDC logo of the Congolese army.

I ask one man watching from the side of the road what he makes of this extreme shift.

“This is bad!” he says to me discreetly on the side of the road, with our car as cover from the prying eyes of the junior M23 soldiers.

“My family is not good. I am not good – we don’t know what comes next.”

Small groups are meeting the rebels with cheers and clapping.

We cannot tell if it is relief from the Congolese state or a necessary precaution for many who do not want to leave their hometown on the cusp of a new administration.

But before they can settle in and set up a local authority, M23 have time to stop and humiliate their former enemy.

Not just the Congolese troops, but the Romanian mercenaries fighting alongside them.

MONUSCO, the United Nations’s peacekeeping group in the DRC, brokered an evacuation convoy for the paid fighters to go to Rwanda with trucks full of Uruguayan peacekeeping troops watching as M23 led the handover through their newly-captured border.

As the Romanian men pass through in a single file, they are chastised by M23 spokesperson Willy Ngoma who taps them mockingly one by one.

“Come on soldier!” he said. “You were fighting for money – we were fighting for our life!”

I corner him as he flags the buses through – could you have come this far without Rwanda’s support?

He tries to keep busy, and after the fourth time I repeat the question, he yells into my face in French:

“We are a Congolese army, we are Congolese! We fight for a fair and noble cause – we are Congolese. We are not helped by Rwanda!”

It will take more than a feverish denial to undermine the widely known support of Rwanda for M23 – one that has been condemned at the highest levels of the United Nations and senior diplomats from around the world.

As the “Welcome to Rwanda” sign gets closer, the last Romanian mercenary limps across with a wounded leg flanked by a UN security advisor and an Indian medic.

A surreal sight of a man heading home after fighting a war in a foreign country surrounded by Congolese families fleeing the war at home.

World

Many feared dead after stampede at Maha Kumbh Hindu festival in northern India

Published

8 hours ago

January 29, 2025

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Many feared dead after stampede at Maha Kumbh Hindu festival in northern India

At least 30 people have died and 60 have been injured in a stampede at a Hindu festival in northern India.

Images from the scene in the city of Prayagraj, in Uttar Pradesh state, show bodies being stretchered away and rescuers helping those who were hurt.

All 60 people injured have been taken to hospital, according to local police.

Millions of people were attempting to take a holy bath in the river at the massive Maha Kumbh festival when there was an initial stampede at 1am local time (7.30pm UK time) on Wednesday.

Authorities said people trying to escape it were then caught in a second – and more serious – stampede at an exit.

Devotees had congregated to bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.

Authorities took more than 16 hours to release precise numbers of those injured and killed.

A Rapid Action Force unit, a special team deployed during crisis situations, was sent to the scene.

The state’s most senior official, Yogi Adityanath, made a televised statement later on Wednesday, urging those still planning to bathe in the Ganges to do it elsewhere on the riverbank.

“The situation is now under control, but there is a massive crowd of pilgrims,” he said.

Around 30 million people had taken the holy bath by 8am local time on Wednesday, he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he has spoken to Mr Adityanath, calling for “immediate support measures”, according to the ANI news agency.

Authorities had expected a record 100 million people to visit Prayagraj for the Maha Kumbh – “festival of the Sacred Pitcher” – on Wednesday for the holy dip.

It is regarded as a significant day for Hindus, due to a rare alignment of celestial bodies after 144 years.

The Maha Kumbh festival, which is held every 12 years, started on 13 January, lasts six weeks, and is the world’s largest religious gathering.

Organisers had forecast that more than 400 million people would attend the pilgrimage site over the course of the festival.

Authorities have built a sprawling tent city on the riverbanks, equipped with 3,000 kitchens, 150,000 toilets and 11 hospitals.

Stampedes are relatively common around Indian religious festivals, where large crowds can gather in small areas.

World

Ukraine war: From the prison cell to the frontline, convicts called on to fight

Published

8 hours ago

January 29, 2025

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Ukraine war: From the prison cell to the frontline, convicts called on to fight

A few weeks ago, the Ukrainian soldier was crammed in a prison cell with seven other inmates, serving time for accidentally killing his friend in a car crash.

Now, Valery, 28, is among thousands of convicts serving their country on the frontline against Russia after being freed from jail under a scheme to bolster Ukraine’s depleted infantry ranks.

Asked what it was like to be on the battlefield instead of behind bars, he said: “My motivation was mainly to defend Ukraine, my family, and my loved ones…

“The feeling when you leave prison and realise that you’re free again is indescribable. Freedom is, after all, freedom. It was very tough back there [in jail], and when I came out here, everything was new, everything was great. It felt like I was born again.”

Some 6,800 criminals have been freed from jails across Ukraine to join the armed forces since the government first unveiled its prisoner recruitment drive last May. By contrast, Russia has long been sending its felons to the frontline.

Not every Ukrainian inmate can apply for release. Those convicted of the most serious offences, including the murder of two or more people, sexual crimes and treason, are barred.

All eligible volunteers must pass medical checks and have their application approved by a court. They sign a contract, agreeing to fight without a holiday for a year and to serve until the end of the war. At that point, they will immediately be granted parole.

Sky News met a group of criminals – convicted of a range of offences, from theft to thuggery – who are fighting to help hold onto a chunk of Russian territory that Ukraine captured last summer.

They are part of a regular armed forces brigade, but their unit – named Shkval, which means squall in English – of about 100 felons operates separately from everyone else.

Valery, whose callsign is “Hacker”, and three other recently-released prisoners, are learning how to fly drones.

“I’ve always been fascinated by drones,” Valery said, speaking as he handled a control panel, buzzing a rotary aircraft around a frozen field in northeastern Ukraine.

Joining ‘drone’ brigade is lucky break

It is a lucky break for him as most freed criminals are channelled straight into the infantry of whichever brigade they join.

This is one of the most dangerous jobs on the battlefield, with soldiers ordered to storm enemy positions or placed at the very front of defensive lines.

In 129 Brigade, however, there is also the opportunity for prisoners with the potential to learn other skills, such as how to operate attack and surveillance drones.

Yevhen, 33, had been part way into a seven-year sentence for hitting someone in the neck during a fight when he opted to leave prison and join the military last month.

He has just started learning how to operate drones, saying: “I’m helping Ukraine, and that’s my duty. I could have just sat idly in prison, but here, I can be of more use.”

The brigade’s prisoner unit is commanded by a tall, broad man with a big personality, who – unlike the men he leads – is not a convict. A businessman and former basketball player, he has been fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion since it began.

Anatoly, 55, said the influx of criminals is a welcome resource to ease up pressure on the frontline.

“These guys are now giving people like us – well, not us, since we’re tireless – but other soldiers, like shooters, a chance to rest, breathe, and rotate,” he said sitting in a makeshift office in a building that was once a school but has become a base for his men when they are not fighting inside Russia’s Kursk region.

We don’t call them criminals

He said lots of prisoners want to join his team, predicting he would have enough to form a battalion of 500 men by the end of February.

“They want to come to us because our approach is more proper-military,” Anatoly said.

“It’s not just about handing out rifles for three days and sending them off [to fight]. We run a full [training] cycle, and we personally carry out combat training with each soldier.”

He also forbids anyone in the wider brigade to use terms such as “convict”, “jailbird” or “criminal” when referring to his soldiers once they have put on a uniform and vowed to serve.

It is dangerous work.

Anatoly described how his men have been part of Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk since it began in August. In that time, he has lost 17 soldiers, with another 30 wounded.

He praised their heroism, despite having criminal records, singling out one 19-year-old who had been in an orphanage, found himself in trouble with the law and ended up in prison.

Anatoly said this young man, callsign Ninja, had taken out nine highly-trained Russian soldiers before dying in an artillery strike last December.

While Ninja was an example of the courage shown by many of the former prisoners under his command, Anatoly said there have also been some disappointments.

He has sent about 10 convicts back to jail for breaking the rules, including one man who tried to flee multiple times and stole a car.

“That’s when you realise that some people are beyond help, they have no place here.”

Extra time for breaking the rules

Under the prisoner release contract, anyone who violates the deal will be returned to prison and receive a further ten years’ jail time on top of whatever sentence they were already doing.

In a separate building on the base, a group of newly arrived convicts receive medical training for the kinds of injuries they may experience in combat.

Denys, 43, listened intently.

He had been serving time for deserting his previous army unit.

“I’ve made amends and decided this [re-joining the armed forces] was the right thing to do,” he said.

Asked how it felt to be training for battle just three days after leaving his prison cell. Denys said: “War. It doesn’t feel great, but it has to be done.”