Ukrainian forces described a different kind of enemy, fighting with unfamiliar tactics and little option to retreat.

These days Russia and North Korea are writing a new battlefield history together. North Korea has dispatched some 12,000 troops to fight in Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. The soldiers are believed to be some of North Korea’s most elite,

There is mounting evidence from the battlefield, intelligence reports and testimonies of defectors that some North Korean soldiers are resorting to extreme measures as they support Russia's three-year war with Ukraine.

"I didn't even know who we were fighting against," the captured soldier from Pyongyang told Ukraine's Security Service.

After his inauguration on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump officially became president of the United States. Meanwhile, Ukraine's intelligence officers interrogated the North Korean soldiers about their transportation to Russian territory.

Cohabitation is difficult on the front line. Putin's armed forces avoid all contact with them, considering them “cruel and devoid of humanity.” Testimonies from Russian prisoners speak of many problems with North Koreans on the front line.

One of the two North Korean soldiers captured by Ukraine this month has claimed that he arrived in Russia without knowing whom he would be fighting, according to another video of his interrogation released by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.