Russia is passing on deadly drone techniques to North Korea, Ukraine official tells BI

Russia is teaching North Korean troops drone combat, a Ukrainian official told BI.

Kim Won Jin/AFP via Getty Images

Russia is training North Korean troops to use combat drones, a Ukrainian official told BI.Andrii Kovalenko told BI that the new combat skills “pose a threat to both Ukraine and South Korea.”Ukraine claims 11,000 North Korean soldiers are now fighting alongside Russia in Kursk.

Russia is now training North Koreans in drone operations and other modern warfare techniques, a Ukrainian official told Business Insider.

Andrii Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said in a statement to BI that “Russia is training North Korean soldiers to operate strike UAVs and reconnaissance drones.”

There are also plans to send Russian FPV drone instructors to Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, for further training opportunities, he said.

In a post earlier this week on X, Kovalenko said that the troops were also receiving training in using Lancet drones.

This training, taking place under live combat conditions, “poses a threat to both Ukraine and South Korea, as some of these soldiers will transfer their skills back to North Korea,” he told BI.

Business Insider was unable to independently confirm his statements.

Kovalenko’s remarks come as Ukraine calls on its international allies to react more strongly to North Korean troops joining forces with Russia.

Kovalenko said that, once back in North Korea, those receiving the training could use their skills “for future terrorist actions in the border areas with South Korea.”

Late last month, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that up to 8,000 North Korean troops had been moved to the Russian region of Kursk, and he predicted that they would enter the fighting shortly.

On Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy upped that number to 11,000 and said: “We see an increase in the number of North Koreans, and we do not see an increase in the reaction of our partners,” per the Kyiv Independent.

Experts have told BI that the direct combat experience North Korean troops will get fighting Ukraine is a massive boon for the secretive state, which has not seen major combat since the 1950s.

Kovalenko said on Monday that the first North Korean troops had already come under fire in Kursk.

In his remarks to BI, he said that since then, “daily battles” with North Korean troops had occurred, with Ukraine regularly shelling their positions.

South Korea recently said it was mulling sending weapons to Ukraine, a move that experts told BI could be a significant help — but which it has long been reluctant to make.

In October, Kim Jong Un modified North Korea’s constitution to redefine its southern neighbor as a “hostile state” and blew up roads connecting the two territories.

The increase in hostilities comes after deepening ties between Moscow and Pyongyang following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.