Recent intercepted internal communication audio from the Russian military by the Ukrainian military intelligence department reveals a disdainful attitude towards the Korean soldiers who came to provide assistance, at one point referring to them as “damn Chinese”.
According to reports from the American cable news network CNN, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Intelligence Agency released intercepted Russian military internal communication audio on October 25. It shows that Russian soldiers expressed concerns about the command style and supply of ammunition and military equipment to the Korean soldiers.
The agency stated that this audio was intercepted on the evening of October 23 from an encrypted Russian transmission channel. In the audio, Russian soldiers contemptuously discussed the approaching Korean soldiers with the codename “K Camp,” at one point calling them “damn Chinese.”
Ukraine analyzed the intercepted audio and stated that the Korean troops planned to mobilize at a field camp in the Kursk region of Russia on the morning of October 24, where Ukraine had launched an earlier raid this year.
The audio also revealed that every 30 Korean soldiers would be accompanied by a translator and three senior officers. Russian soldiers in the audio can be heard expressing disapproval of this arrangement.
One Russian soldier said, “The only thing I don’t understand is, why do 30 people need 3 senior officers? Where are we going to find them? We have to pull them out.”
Another soldier said, “F**k, I’m telling you, 77 company commanders will come tomorrow, with commanders, deputy commanders, and so on.”
Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Intelligence Agency pointed out on October 24 that some Korean soldiers had already entered the Kursk region bordering Ukraine. In the past few weeks, Russian and Ukrainian forces have been in a standoff in that area.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy stated on October 25 that he had received a report from the Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief regarding the deployment of Korean military personnel.
Zelenskyy said, “According to intelligence, Russia will deploy the first batch of Korean soldiers to the conflict zone on October 27-28. This is a clear step by Russia to escalate the situation, unlike all the false information circulating about Kazan now.”
The BRICS summit was held last week in Kazan, located in southwestern Russia. Zelenskyy accused Russian President Putin of controlling the summit.
Initially, the Kremlin denied the claim of Korean troops being sent to aid Russia, but Putin did not deny the presence of Korean troops in the country at the summit.
North Korea had previously denied sending troops to aid Russia, but the South Korean news agency reported on October 25 that Kim Jong-kui, the Deputy Minister responsible for Russia affairs at the North Korean Foreign Ministry, stated that if such a deployment had occurred, it would be in accordance with international legal norms. This statement effectively acknowledges the deployment of North Korean troops to aid Russia in the aggression against Ukraine.
According to reports by the South Korean news agency, the head of the South Korean National Intelligence Service, Cho Tai-yong, reported to the parliament on October 23 that as of that day, over 3,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia, and by around December, their number is expected to increase to over 10,000.