Russia Pulls North Korean Soldiers Off Front Lines After Heavy Losses Against Ukraine

North Korean troops supporting Russia in fighting against Ukrainian forces have been removed from battle after being severely weakened from suffering a large number of casualties, officials say.

North Korean soldiers were sent to support their Russian allies in battle after Ukrainian forces launched an offensive in Kursk, inside of Russia's borders. However, anonymous officials reported that North Korean troops have not been spotted at the front for almost two weeks now, signaling the troops scaling back their efforts, according to the New York Times.

"Over the past three weeks, we have not seen or detected any activity or military clashes with the North Koreans," Oleksandr Kindratenko, spokesman for the Special Operations Forces, told AFP.

"We believe that they have been withdrawn because of the heavy losses that were inflicted," he continued.

Ukraine launched its offensive in August of last year. Following this, North Korea deployed over 10,000 troops to support Russian soldiers in the western Kursk region after Ukraine captured multiple border settlements, marking the first time a foreign army entered Russian territory since World War 2.

North Korean forces, spotted by Ukrainian forces and its allies, were never confirmed to have been deployed to the war front by Moscow or Pyongyang.

Ukrainian officials and front-line troops have reported that, while the North Korean troops are strong fighters, they lack coordination with their Russian counterparts and suffer from disorganization within their ranks which has caused casualties to increase.

"There are a lot of different arguments out there, both right and wrong," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters when asked if North Korean troops had withdrawn from the Kursk front on Friday.

"It's not worth commenting on every time," he continued.

Roughly 2,000 Russians are living in areas under Ukrainian occupation, cut off from friends and family across the border. The Russian government's failure to re-secure Moscow-controlled territories in which Russians live has caused unrest to grow amongst civilians at the Russian border.