Reports on Tuesday revealed that a North Korean M1989 Koksan self-propelled howitzer has been sighted on Russia’s front lines. This information surfaced after initial reports in November about the delivery of two of these large guns.
The M1989 Koksan howitzer is known to have a range of up to 37 miles when using rocket-assisted shells, and it can fire one to two shells every five minutes.
East 2 West news was the first to report on the presence of this artillery piece, sharing a video purportedly showing it in a combat zone. Images of the howitzer also circulated on social media, although the exact location of the weapon could not be independently confirmed by Fox News Digital.
Moscow, according to a Tuesday BBC report, alleged that at least 49,000 Ukrainian troops had been lost, though it has not differentiated between the number of Ukrainians wounded or killed.
Fox News Digital has not been able to independently verify either nation’s casualty reports.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assessed on Monday that Ukrainian forces made “tactical advances amid continued intensified offensive operations” in Kursk.
“Ukrainian forces may be continuing to conduct long-range strikes against Russian rear areas in Kursk Oblast as part of efforts to use integrated strike capabilities to support ground operations,” the think tank added.
Russian forces continued limited ground operations towards the city of Kharkiv in northern Ukraine on Sunday and Monday, but reportedly saw little advances – an operation Ukraine has in large part successfully countered since May.
Head of the Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration, Oleh Synehubov, said on Monday that Ukraine’s recent offensive operations in Kursk have been able to reduce the number of Russian ground attacks in northern Kharkiv Oblast, reported the ISW.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, meets soldiers who took part in a training in North Korea, on March 13, 2024. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Reports on Monday suggested that Russian forces had made some advances in Donetsk and had captured Kurakhove, a front-line town in the Donbas region. The seizure of this town could indicate Russian forces are closing in on Ukrainian troops, who have been hammered for months looking to stop Russian forces from encircling the town of Pokrovsk, and which could give Russian forces a strategic win and access to supply routes connecting the area to Zaporizhzhia.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed whether Kurakhove has fallen.
Russian forces are not assessed to have made any strategic advances along other front-line areas at this time.
