The North Korean troops fighting for Russia are highly trained and will stop at nothing to avoid surrender, Ukrainian sources tell Sam Kiley, The Independent’s World Affairs Editor, in Sumy

A captured North Korean soldier has said he did not know he was being sent to fight in a war in Russia and that Pyongyang’s troops are suffering major losses in battle, according to a video released by Ukraine.

Ukraine has found “irrefutable evidence” of North Korea’s involvement in Russia’s war against his country, president Volodymyr Zelensky said this week as he announced the capture of two North Korean soldiers.

All North Korean recruits are taught a song that includes a verse about saving their last bullet for themselves to avoid capture, one former soldier told NBC News.

British intelligence has reported that one-third of the troops deployed alongside Russian forces in Ukraine are already out of action. Pyongyang sent a contingent of 12,000 soldiers to Russia to assist local forces in regaining lost territory in the Kursk region,

Charities in shock over Trump aid freeze as North Korea partially withdraws forces - US aid freeze is a ‘very severe blow’, Ukrainian soldier’s wife says