Lester Golden
7 min readJan 17, 2025

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Here's an on the ground report from Kursk from MaximTucker on Times Radio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwTPjd20Xt0

And there's an increasing quantity of radio intercepts, captured DPRK troops, drone videos of them.

You've obtained the first uh account by Ukrainian forces of

Close Quarters fighting with noran

troops inside Russia who did you speak

to and where were they I spoke to um the

33rd separate assault Brigade um they're

known as the big cats and they were

fighting in a village called Makhhanova in

the Kursk region um this was actually a

really important strategic battle

because it's a place where if the North

Koreans and the Russians had been able

to take hold of that Village they could

push push onto suja the town that the

largest town that Ukraine has be able to

occupy in Russia and effectively cut off

the Ukraine and Advance deeper into the

kurk region uh recently Ukraine has

reinforced its efforts in kurk and has

attempted to take more territory inside

Kursk again as part of this um attempt

to negoti have a better negotiating

position when it comes to peace talks

with Putin um and if you know some of

those are the best equipped brigades

that they are the the the best um

trained uh units that are pushing

forward into kusk and if they'd been cut

off and the North Koreans had gotone in

behind them then it would have been

really difficult for the ukrainians to

escape from that and you spoke in

particular to leftenant Colonel leopard

um as you write his name being um can

you tell me a little bit more about

about him uh that's his call sign so

he's a senior commander in this um

Battalion um and he is uh coordinating

different units we're using different

advant Technologies it's become a you

know a war of Technology now the

Russians are increasingly using um

firstperson view drones with with

fiberoptic very kind of n thin

fiberoptic cables attached to them so

that they can negate the um the

Ukrainian jamming and that's proving

quite effective and difficult um for the

ukrainians to deal with the so the

Russian the Russian fpv drones have a

fiber optic cable attached to them which

defeats the Ukrainian jamming and so

that's giving the Russians an advantage

in the air um in mnova it was

interesting because the North Koreans

were attacking but they don't seem to

have drone capabilities they're not

equipped to use drones and this

lieutenant colonel was telling me that

in the fighting inside that Village the

ukrainians were able to have the upper

hand because they were in the air above

the North Koreans and the North Koreans

didn't really know how to deal with

these drones the North Koreans were also

walking forwards in single file into

minefields um and you know people were

being taken out by these mines in the

North Koreans would just carry on

marching past them the paramedics

dragging off the battlefield the wounded

off the battlefield it's really

interesting when you talking to to

somebody um of that professionalism how

do they react when they're describing

the way they're seeing the North Koreans

basically being thrown into the field

and allowed to die in that

way well I think you know at this point

in the war three years on a lot of

people like men like him are are very

matter of fact about the nature of of

death and killing it's it's been going

on for so long I mean I think there is

still you know some element of horror

about how needlessly lives are being

thrown away and and surprised still at

that the North Koreans that they're

willing to sacrifice their soldiers in a

in a very alien land which has really

you know very little benefit to them in

doing so um and the the the lack of

concern for the soldiers that the

Russians are commanding is is is clear

and there is is you know some Shock

within the Ukrainian ranks about that

but they're getting increasingly used to

it and this was a mixed unit right of

North Korean and Russian troops what did

you learn about how well trained they

are and how effectively they're working

together so yeah the the North Koreans

are inserted into Russian units and

they're given Russian uniforms Russian

equipment so they can't easily be

identified as North Koreans but

obviously they're speaking different

languages the radio intercepts are are

are making clear that they're North

Koreans and Visually you can see that

some are North Koreans where compared to

ethnic Russians um now they do seem to

be quite well trained troops are

physically fit this is what the the

lieutenant colonel was telling me um and

they're good at kind of Clearing Houses

and establishing positions inside

Villages but they really have no ability

to deal with a modern nature of warfare

they just don't understand that they're

being spied on from the sky at all times

they're still hiding in in tree lines

and not realizing they can be recognized

with thermal imaging cameras um and

they're being taken out quite easily by

drones a result of that and suffering

very he heavy casualties um they also

need to have Russian guides who attached

to them to show them where to go and

help them interpret their surroundings

because it's so different from anything

that they've ever seen in North Korea

and the this unit had captured one of

the Russian guys who was providing a lot

of detailed information to the

ukrainians about how they work together

and why would there be such a efforts to

conceal the fact that they are North

Koreans I think for Putin it's still

quite embarrassing that he has to rely

on another Nation to to defend Russian

borders and they're trying to minimize

the images that get out around the world

and inside Russia for the purposes that

it doesn't suit his propaganda narrative

that he is the guy that guarantees

Russia security um of course inevitably

you know people are starting to be

captured we've seen two North Koreans

captured and paraded on Ukrainian

television um so it is it is getting out

anyway and some of that will probably

start to permeate into Russia that

they're having to rely on North Korea

for their own defense and what have you

learned about the North Korean soldiers

um opting to not be taken

alive so there's probably considerable

pressure on North Koreans not to be

captured because of repercussions for

their families back home and anything

that the the regime pongyang regime

would do to their families if they allow

themselves to be captured alive and then

you know there have been stories about

Russians executing wounded North Koreans

North Korean officers executing their

own wounded soldiers rather than try and

retrieve them or allow them to be

captured um but inevitably the nature of

warfare is such that people get wounded

and surprised and surrounded and there

have been these these two prisoners War

at least so far and I think we can

expect to see more um and it will become

increasingly difficult and ineffective

to use those methods to try and hide the

fact that North Korean troops are

fighting inside Russia and in the case

of this Village which you write write

about mnova what's the situation now and

can you describe how the North Koreans

were

routed so yes so the the North Koreans

had set up three machine gun positions

inside this Village um and they were

trying to control um the area using

these positions and they fortified the

areas and they came in by surprise

flanked the Ukrainian units who weren't

ready for them at the time so the this

33rd separate assault Brigade had to go

in and clear them out in hous to house

fighting um they did do that and

obviously with the help of drones which

the North Koreans weren't using that

gave them um an advantage they also had

tank the ukrainians had tanks um and

armored personnel carriers which they

deployed inside the village and they

were able to to drive out the North

Koreans and hold on to the village now

the fighting in that Village has been

very Fierce over the past couple of days

um you know the lieutenant colonel said

said to me that in two days he saw 120

North Korean Russian troops killed um in

one incident he said he saw um in a

space of four minutes about 50 North

Korean troops killed by drone um so it

was you know very intensive battle and

after that the Russians and North

Koreans seem to have been driven out of

the village and they they are not making

any more attempts to take that Village

um and there had been radio intercepts

from Russian officers suggesting that

the North Koreans are not prepared to go

back and take that try and take that

Village again and at the moment in K on

the ground there isn't that much

movement though as

there there's there's been some movement

of the ukrainians trying to push further

into KK there was reinforcements in in

an effort to do that it hasn't got as

far as the ukrainians would have hoped

but a lot of what is happening there is

still quite unclear um uh the Russians

launched a counter offensive to try and

you know cut off the Ukrainian and put

pressure on the the units that are being

reinforced so there is still a lot of

heavy fighting but yes as ever in this

war it's increasingly difficult to make

territorial gains because as soon as you

come out into the open you're exposed to

drones and you're exposed to artillery

um and it's very very difficult to make

gains in the current environment

especially when it's so cold and we

talked before about the importance of

holding on to at least part of Cur as

leverage for any ceasefire talks that

might take place how aware was the

commander that you spoke to of how his

particular operation fits into the

bigger picture and the

objectives I think when we spoke he he

was tired he had a limited amount of

time because he had to go back to the

front in a few hours time um and he's

really thinking about the The Daily

Grind

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Lester Golden
Lester Golden

Written by Lester Golden

From Latvia & Porto I write to share learning from an academic&business life in 8 languages in 5 countries & seeing fascism die in Portugal&Spain in1974 & 1976.

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