Ukrainian forces have engaged in “small-scale” clashes with North Korean troops in Kursk, marking their first battlefield confrontation with Kim Jong-un’s soldiers, Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov said.

Pyongyang's troops have already been fired open in Russia's Kursk region, according to a Ukrainian military official.

Russia has confirmed to the West that North Korea is taking an active part in the war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with the South Korean KBS TV channel published on Oct.