‘How many more are there?’ Intercepted recording appears to capture Russian nurse complaining about hundreds of North Korean soldiers arriving at Moscow hospital
On Tuesday, the Associated Press, citing a senior U.S. military official, reported that “a couple hundred” of the North Korean troops fighting against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region had been killed or wounded. The estimate marks the first indication of losses among the North Korean soldiers fighting alongside Russia. Less than a day later, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released what it says is an intercepted recording of a phone call between a Russian nurse and her husband. The nurse is heard recounting the arrival of about 200 North Korean soldiers at her Moscow hospital in the prior days. Meduza summarizes the call and what it reveals about North Korea’s losses.
Up to several hundred North Korean soldiers may have been killed or wounded in Russia’s Kursk region, The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing a senior U.S. military official.
The Pentagon previously told the NYT that a combined total of about 50,000 Russian and North Korean soldiers are working to push Ukrainian troops out of Russian territory. North Korean troops, less experienced than Russian ones, have reportedly been more vulnerable to Ukrainian strikes on their command posts and infantry positions.
The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) has also reported that North Korean forces are suffering significant losses in the Kursk region. On Wednesday, the agency released what it said was an intercepted conversation between a Russian soldier and his wife, who works as a nurse near Moscow. In the clip, which has not been independently verified, the woman mentions that about 200 wounded North Koreans had been brought to her hospital in previous days.
“Yesterday, a train arrived with about 100 [North Koreans]. Today, there were another 120 — so that’s already 200. And how many more are there? God only knows,” the nurse is heard saying. Later, she complains that Russian hospital wards are being reserved for North Korean troops, while wounded Russian soldiers are treated in inferior conditions.
“These Koreans are elite or something. We clear out specific fucking wards for them. […] What, are they a privileged class?” the nurse continues. “Well, they’re ‘imported,’” her husband responds.
The woman also complains about the difficulty of treating patients who don’t speak Russian. She says that medical staff are not allowed to speak English with the North Korean soldiers and that online translation tools have proved inaccurate and ineffective.
“Lariska said to me, ‘How will you know when they need pain medication?’ And I told her, ‘There’s no fucking way to know. If they start wailing, it means they need it,” the woman says.
They all have the same face. How we’re supposed to differentiate between these… I don’t know. […] We’ll have to write on their foreheads in fucking marker. And they’re all dressed in the colors [of the clothing] that was provided to the hospital.
Russia has not officially confirmed that North Korean military personnel are fighting in the Kursk region. On December 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Russian forces are “trying to hide the losses among North Koreans.”
Analysts at the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War suggested in their December 17 report that the Kremlin will likely continue concealing North Koreans’ role in the conflict, as officially revealing it “would tacitly acknowledge that Russia needs foreign troops to recapture its own territory.”
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