Military Watch:

Russia Forward Deploys 50,000 Personnel For New Kharkiv Offensive: More Forces Available as North Koreans Hold Kursk

Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Ground

Military Watch Magazine Editorial Staff

May-25th-2025

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Ryazan Guards High Military Airborne Command School Personnel

The Russian Armed Forces have been reported by a number of Western sources to have redeployed a large contingent of approximately 50,000 personnel from the Kursk region to the Ukrainian Kharkiv region. Kharkiv has been a major centre of hostilities throughout much of the Russian-Ukrainian War, with the regional capital Kharkiv City located just 30 kilometres from internationally recognised Russian territory. Referred to by Western sources as Ukraine’s ‘fortress city,’ there has been significant speculation that Russian forces may seek to launch offensives to pave the way to capturing the major population centre. The Russian Army has recently made important gains near the city, including the capture of the Kamenka localities in late April. 

Commenting on the redeployment to Kharkiv, Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Army’s 13th Operational Brigade Andriy Pomahaibus observed: “The enemy is trying to pull its personnel closer to the line of combat contact and conduct at least some assault actions.” He stressed that there was “clear preparation for active assault actions by the enemy.” The reported presence of Russia’s elite Airborne Forces, which previously played a central role in counterattacking after Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk, have provided a further indication that a Kharkiv offensive may be planned. 

Ukrainian Personnel in Kharkov

A major facilitator of Russia’s redeployment of forces to Kharkiv on such a large scale is likely to be the significant deployments of Korean People’s Army personnel to Kursk, where they played a central role in expelling Ukrainian forces. While it remains uncertain whether North Korean personnel will deploy in any significant numbers to disputed regions outside internationally recognised Russian territory, their presence defending Kursk and other Russian regions could be key to facilitating Russian offensives further west, while insuring that Pyongyang’s actions remain in line with international law and cannot be construed as participating in an invasion of Ukraine. North Korean equipment such as KN-23 ballistic missile systems and Bulsae-4 non line of sight anti-tank missile systems is expected to continue to be used by frontline Russian units for operations in disputed regions such as Kharkiv, and provide a number of new capabilities which Russian forces previously lacked. Assessments of the performance of Korean People’s Army units indicate that they have performed significantly more capable than many units in the Russian Armed Forces, and made a strong impression on Russian forces they operated alongside. North Koreans were notably far from the only third party forces involved in hostilities in Kursk, with contractor combatants from the Western world such as the American Forward Observation Group and the Polish Volunteer Corps also playing important roles on the Ukrainian side.

Ukrainian Army Leopard 2A6 Destroyed Kursk in September 2024

Ukraine launched its massive assault on Kursk on August 6, in parallel to a separate failed attack on Russia’s Belgorod Region. A report by the Washington Post citing wounded Ukrainian personnel evacuated from the frontlines in Belgorod noted that the assault involved a “fleet of armoured vehicles [moving] in broad daylight,” with one soldier describing the operation as “crazy,” while other sources corroborated this. The attack on Kursk, although initially allowing Ukrainian forces to take considerable ground, has increasingly been viewed by analysts as a disastrous turning point in the war, with the isolation of the Ukrainian contingent surrounded by larger numbers of Russian forces on multiple sides, and with only limited air defence coverage, resulting in extreme losses. Alongside the reinforcement of Kursk with North Korean forces, the scale of the losses suffered by the Ukrainian Army and supporting paramilitaries in Kursk, including among many of their most elite units, is also expected to contribute to Russian advances on the frontlines further west when facing a Ukrainian Army that is now significantly more depleted.