Ukraine’s military said Wednesday it shot down 38 of the 63 aerial drones that Russian forces launched in overnight attacks.


The Ukrainian air force said it intercepted the drones over the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zhytomyr and Zaporizhzhia regions.


Vitaliy Kim, the governor of Mykolaiv, said on Telegram that Russia’s attack damaged energy infrastructure but did not hurt anyone.


Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it destroyed two Ukrainian drones over the Kursk region and another drone over Oryol.


Russian officials said there were no reports of damage or casualties.


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that his country’s forces have engaged in battle with the North Korean troops that were deployed to Russia to assist in its war on Ukraine.


"The first battles with North Korean soldiers open a new page of instability in the world," Zelenskyy said Tuesday in his daily address — his first official acknowledgement of the encounter between the two forces.


Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s defense minister, has also confirmed the arrival of the North Korean forces. In an interview with South Korea’s public broadcaster KBS, he said the Ukrainian and North Korean forces have engaged in "small-scale" fighting.


"The first North Korean troops have already been shelled in the Kursk region," said Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council.


On Wednesday, foreign ministers from the Group of 7 nations, along with South Korea, Australia and New Zealand, issued a joint statement expressing “grave concerns” over “DPRK’s direct support for Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine,” referring to North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.


“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the increasing military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including the DPRK’s export and Russia’s unlawful procurement of DPRK ballistic missiles in breach of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions, as well as Russia’s use of these missiles and munitions against Ukraine,” the ministers said, warning that this could dangerously expand the conflict with serious implications for European and Indo-Pacific security.


They also voiced serious concerns about any potential transfer of nuclear or missile-related technology from Russia to the DPRK. 


According to a U.S. official quoted by The New York Times late Tuesday, a "significant number" of North Korean troops had been killed, although the report said it was not clear when the fighting had occurred.


Some information for this story was provided by Agence France-Presse, Reuters and The Associated Press.

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