Russia has massed some 45,000 troops in Kursk likely in preparation of a counteroffensive to expel Ukrainian forces from the region, Ukrainian Commander In Chief General Oleksandr Syrskiy said on November 6, adding Moscow was also seeking to beef up its effectiveness with North Korean soldiers.
Syrskiy's comments on social media came the same day that Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, ratified a treaty with Pyongyang envisioning mutual military assistance, a move that comes as Washington has confirmed the deployment of 10,000 North Korean troops to Russia.
"The enemy concentrated about 45,ooo troops there. And it is trying to increase their number. Russia's own troops are not enough in this direction, so they are trying to attract military personnel from North Korea there," Syrskiy wrote on Telegram.
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Ukraine claims to control more than 1,000 square kilometers of territory in Kursk following a surprise incursion inside the Russian region bordering Ukraine that began August 6.
Kyiv's move came as a surprise as its depleted forces were struggling in Ukraine's east against a grinding offensive by more numerous, better-equipped, and better-armed Russian forces.
Syrskiy said the incursion was needed as a preemptive strike against an expected Russian attack from Kursk into Ukraine's Sumy region.
"That is why it was decided to conduct a preemptive offensive operation with the transfer of hostilities to the territory of the enemy in the Kursk region," Syrskiy wrote.
He also claimed that since the start of Ukraine's incursion into Kursk, 7,905 Russian soldiers were killed, 12,220 were wounded, and 717 were captured.
The figures advanced by Syrskiy could not be independently confirmed.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his evening address on November 6 that he would visit Budapest on November 7 to take part in the fifth summit of the European Political Community at the invitation of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and European Council President Charles Michel.
Zelenskiy said the meeting will discuss security challenges in Europe, as well as "new opportunities for all partners."
Earlier on November 6, the foreign ministers of some of Ukraine's most important Western partners issued a statement expressing concern about the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia.
North Korea's "direct support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, besides showing Russia's desperate efforts to compensate its losses, would mark a dangerous expansion of the conflict, with serious consequences for European and Indo-Pacific peace and security," the foreign ministers of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Britain, the United States, and the High Representative of the European Union said.
They added that deployment of the troops in battle would be a further breach of international law, including the UN Charter. The foreign ministers condemned the military cooperation between Moscow and Pyongyang "in the strongest possible terms."
Earlier on November 6, Ukraine's air defenses shot down 38 out of the 63 drones launched by Russia at nine regions -- Odesa, Mykolayiv, Kyiv, Sumy, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Zaporizhzhya -- the air force reported on Telegram.
Twenty-two other drones were lost after their navigation systems were jammed by Ukrainian electronic-warfare units, the air force added.
Separately, the governor of the southeastern region of Zaporizhzhya said that the number of casualties following a Russian missile strike on his region had grown to seven dead and 25 wounded.
Russia has stepped up its attacks on Ukraine's cities and energy infrastructure as a third winter of war draws near. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its air defenses downed three Ukrainian drones over the Kursk and Oryol regions.