Zelensky confirms deadly clashes with North Korean troops as Putin says he’s willing to talk with Trump

CNN — 

North Korean troops deployed to Russia’s Kursk region have fought Kyiv’s forces on the battlefield, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday, adding that the clashes resulted in fatalities.

Zelensky said 11,000 North Korean soldiers are in the region, where Ukraine’s three-month military incursion into Russian territory has stalled.

“Eleven thousand North Korean soldiers or soldiers of the North Korean army are currently present on the territory of the Russian Federation in the border with Ukraine on the north of our country in the Kursk region,” Zelensky told reporters at the European Political Community summit in Budapest, Hungary, on Thursday.

“Some of these troops have already taken part in hostilities against the Ukrainian military. Yes, there are already losses, this is a fact.”

He did not specify which side suffered the losses.

The New York Times reported earlier this week that a number of North Korean troops had been killed in a limited engagement with Russian and Ukrainian forces, citing senior US and Ukrainian officials.

The announcement of their use in combat comes as the United States and its allies weigh how to respond to the escalating military partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Ukraine and its NATO allies are also gauging how the reelection of US President-elect Donald Trump will impact the balance of the war and are bracing for the possibility of a dramatic reduction in US support two-and-a-half years after Moscow invaded.

On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin made his first public comments on the US election, saying he is ready for dialogue with the Republican president-elect and noted that Trump’s comments on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine “deserve attention at the very least.”