North Korean soldiers fighting for Russia were given fake military documents with Russian names and birthplaces, the Ukrainian military said, amid claims from Kyiv that Russia is trying to conceal the presence of foreign fighters on the battlefield.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has, for the first time, sent combatant units abroad, to aid Russia in the war in Ukraine. As noted in the Joint Statement on the DPRK’s Deployment of Troops to Russia this development indelibly connects the Indo-Pacific and European theaters,

A letter from a North Korean soldier who died while deployed in Russia’s war against Ukraine was released by Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces on Christmas Eve. The handwritten note reportedly found on the body of the fallen soldier in Russia’s Kursk region offers a glimpse into the soldier’s emotional state.