President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow has had to pull troops from other regions to beat back Ukraine’s offensive.
In his daily address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy, said that Moscow had sent 50,000 troops to its southwestern region of Kursk.
According to independent estimates, only about 11,000 troops had been stationed there ahead of Ukraine’s surprise offensive into the border region in August.
The president said “our troops continue to hold back” the “nearly 50,000 strong enemy group.”
Zelenskyy implied that this meant the Kremlin had pulled its troops from fighting in other parts of Ukraine.
However, a recent investigation by the New York Times found that Russia has not needed to pull its troops from other regions in order to counter the Kursk offensive. Instead, it is said they are employing North Korean soldiers.
In July, Ukrainian military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi told the Guardian that Russia had a total of 520,000 troops in Ukraine, with a goal of reaching 690,000 by the end of the year.
Zelenskyy’s statement comes a day after Pyongyang and Moscow signed a mutual defense treaty, promising to come to each other’s aid in case of attack.
