A total of 3,800 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded by Ukrainian forces in Russia's Kursk Oblast, President Zelensky said in an interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman on Jan. 5.

North Korean troop deployment to Russia was an initiative from Pyongyang, not the Kremlin. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin quickly endorsed it, according to The New York Times. The agency notes that when North Korean troops began arriving in Russia this fall,