Ukrainian intelligence details the equipment it says Moscow is arming North Korean troops with, from ‘Dragunov’ sniper rifles to thermal imagers

• US officials said this week that around 8,000 North Korean troops were in Russia’s Kursk region.

• Ukrainian intelligence has detailed the weapons and equipment it says Moscow has provided the troops.

• They are expected to enter the war any day now.

Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence has shared details about the weapons and equipment it says Moscow is arming North Korean troops with.

The department said on Saturday that Moscow had equipped thousands of North Korean troops in Russia with 60mm mortars, AK-12 rifles, RPK/PKM machine guns, SVD/SVF sniper rifles, Phoenix anti-tank guided missiles, and RPG-7s.

It said they had also been provided with night vision equipment, thermal imagers, collimator optical sights, and binoculars.

It appears that some of the weaponry will be similar to that used by Russian soldiers.

The AK-12 is a standard service assault rifle used by Russian infantry. The SVD sniper rifle, also known as the “Dragunov,” is a semiautomatic Russian infantry sniper rifle “designed to engage enemy personnel and other unarmored targets at ranges up to 800 meters,” according to the manufacturer Kalashnikov Group.

Ukraine has previously released a video that appeared to show North Korean troops “being outfitted in Russian gear” at a Russian military training compound.

US officials said at a press conference on Thursday that around 8,000 North Korean troops were in the Russian frontline region of Kursk and were expected to enter the war within days.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the conference that the US believed Russian forces had trained the North Korean soldiers on artillery, drone, and basic infantry operations.

“We’ve not yet seen these troops deploy into combat against Ukraine’s forces, but we expect that these North Korean soldiers will join the fight against Ukraine in the coming days,” he said.

It comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Western allies to lift restrictions on long-range weaponry to enable Ukraine to potentially carry out preemptive strikes on the North Korean forces gathered in Russia.

“We could strike preemptively, if we had the ability to do so, with a long-range strike,” he said. “It depends on our partners.”

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