About 18 North Korean soldiers are believed to have left the Russian front line as Kremlin fighters are said to be searching for them.

The troops were deployed in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk oblasts, about six kilometers from the border with Ukraine, when they deserted, Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne reported.

Intelligence officials cited by the broadcaster said the Russian military is searching for the North Korean soldiers as commanders try to conceal the desertion from their senior cadres.

It comes after reports that Moscow was planning to raise a battalion of troops sent by Kim Jong Un to help drive Ukrainian forces out of Kursk.

Ukrainian outlet LEAGUE reported on Tuesday that the soldiers would be involved in combat missions in the southwestern regions of the country, where Russia is still fighting the invasion of Ukraine.

North Korean soldiers would form a ‘special Buryat battalion’ named after the Mongolian ethnic group native to the region spanning Siberia, northern Mongolia and China, sources cited by LEAGUE said.

Pyongyang and Moscow have been developing their relationship for some time, promising earlier this year to offer each other assistance if they were attacked.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited North Korea in June for the first time in 24 years, when he and Kim signed a so-called “comprehensive strategic partnership pact” with a clause similar to Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which states that an attack by one member is an attack on all.

Should either country “enter a state of war as a result of armed aggression,” the other will “promptly provide military and other assistance by all means at its disposal,” according to the pact, published by North Korean state media.

Last week, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said: “Since Russia and North Korea have signed a mutual treaty similar to a military alliance, the possibility of such a deployment is very likely.”

He said recent reports of North Korean troop casualties reported by Ukrainian media the week before were likely true as he spoke to lawmakers during a parliamentary audit, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

The Kiev Post And Interfax-Ukraine intelligence sources cited said that on October 3, six North Korean officers were killed on the Russian front line near Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

According to Russian Telegram channel Kremlin Snuffbox, three more officers from North Korea were injured in the attack and sent to Moscow for treatment.

Last year, the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate, Kiev’s military intelligence service, reported the arrival of a number of North Korean military personnel, including technical personnel, to the Russian-occupied territory near Donetsk.

Meanwhile, the Center of National Resistance – established by the Ukrainian Army’s Special Operations Forces – reported in September 2023 that Russian President Vladimir Putin had convinced North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to send North Korean citizens to the Russian-occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk. for construction work.

North Korea has been a key ally of Russia in its ongoing war with Ukraine, which began when Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Kiev in February 2022. The United States has accused North Korea of ​​sending artillery to Russia throughout the war, which Moscow and Pyongyang have denied.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Defense and the North Korean Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Mission to the United Nations Office via email for comment.