Russians are reportedly burning the faces of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine to conceal the fact that they are fighting for Vladimir Putin.

In its daily report on the conflict for December 17, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that the Russian military is attempting to conceal North Korean personnel losses and is burning the faces of killed soldiers from the country to hide their presence in Russia.

The ISW added: “Zelensky added that the Russian military forbids North Korean personnel from showing their faces while training in Russia and attempted to remove any video evidence of North Korean soldiers operating in Russia.

“Ukrainian military officials and intelligence sources have previously noted that the Russian military attempted to disguise North Korean soldiers as Russian forces from the Republic of Buryatia.

“ISW has not observed Russian officials and state media acknowledging the presence of North Korean forces in Russia or their participation in combat operations in Kursk Oblast.

“The Kremlin will likely continue to avoid reporting on the deployment of North Korean forces in Kursk Oblast as doing so would tacitly acknowledge that Russia needs foreign troops to recapture its own territory and invalidate Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s claims that the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast resulted in high Russian recruitment rates.”

On Monday, US Major General Patrick Ryder stated that North Korean military personnel have been killed and wounded in combat operations in Kursk Oblast but did not specify how many casualties North Korean personnel have suffered.

On Tuesday, The Moscow Times reports, a senior US military official said that North Korean forces have suffered “several hundred” casualties fighting against Ukrainian troops in Russia‘s Kursk region.

The anonymous source said: “Several hundred casualties is our latest estimate that the DPRK has suffered.”

They added that this “would include everything from… light wounds up to being KIA [killed in action],” with soldiers of “all ranks” among the casualties.

The official added: “These are not battle-hardened troops. They haven’t been in combat before.”

The source also said that this was likely contributing to “why they have been suffering the casualties that they have at the hands of the Ukrainians.”

CNN reports that North Korean units arrived in Kursk last month and were involved in assaults at the weekend near three villages, according to Ukraine’s defence intelligence service.