☠️ North Korean Drone Bait: Ukraine’s Brutal New War
Senior Associate Copy Editor
Drone war's brutal new reality: North Korean troops used as "human bait" in Ukraine's meat grinder. See the shocking footage .
The Meat Grinder: North Korean Units Fed to Ukraine’s Drone War
What we’re seeing out of Ukraine isn’t a conventional battlefield. It’s a testing ground for a new kind of war, one where the grim calculus of attrition gets a digital upgrade. These videos, raw feeds ripped from the front, paint a stark picture: Russia is throwing bodies into the grinder, and increasingly, those bodies are wearing North Korean uniforms. Forget grand strategy; this is about survival minute-to-minute under the constant, buzzing threat from above. The footage isn’t pretty, and neither is the reality it shows. We’re watching a brutal lesson in adaptation – or the catastrophic failure to adapt – in real-time.
Key Takeaways from the Drone Front
Outdated Tactics, Devastating Losses: Video after video highlights the North Korean military’s shocking unpreparedness for modern drone warfare. Decades of isolation and adherence to Korean War-era tactics are translating to mass casualty events. They’re walking into drone kill zones like it’s still 1953.
Human Wave 2.0 – Drone Bait Edition: The descriptions detail a disturbing tactic: North Koreans used as literal "human bait" to draw drone fire. This isn’t about military strategy; it’s about expendability. Commanders are sacrificing these troops to probe Ukrainian defenses and burn through drone ammunition, a callous calculation that speaks volumes about the value placed on their lives.
Technological Blindness: The footage and descriptions repeatedly emphasize the North Koreans’ inability to counter or even comprehend the drone threat. Lack of electronic warfare capabilities, basic countermeasures, and even fundamental evasion maneuvers turn them into sitting ducks. Their attempts to shoot down drones with small arms – while standing in the open – are tragically futile.
Christmas Toy Deception: In a particularly grim example of battlefield ingenuity, Ukrainian forces are using drones with Christmas toys attached. This isn’t some kind of morale booster; it’s psychological warfare, exploiting the North Koreans’ confusion and lack of modern battlefield awareness to buy precious seconds before detonation. It’s a cold, effective tactic in a war that’s stripped away any pretense of chivalry.
Integration and Cannon Fodder: The videos point to a concerning trend: North Korean units are being integrated into Russian formations, often placed on the most exposed and dangerous axes of advance. They are not fighting alongside Russians as equals; they are being used as shock troops, absorbing the brunt of Ukrainian firepower and drone strikes. This reinforces the impression of a desperate Russian command willing to sacrifice allied troops to shield their own dwindling forces.
Strategic Incompetence, Tactical Brutality: The overarching narrative is one of Russian strategic failures compounded by brutal, tactically inept deployments of North Korean soldiers. The gains are minimal, the losses are staggering, and the human cost, particularly for the North Koreans, is catastrophic. This isn’t just a war of attrition; it’s a war of calculated, almost industrial-scale, waste of human life.
Analysis: The Drone’s Eye View of Desperation
What these videos reveal isn’t just tactical failures; it’s a strategic rot at the core of the Russian offensive. They’re resorting to increasingly desperate measures – importing soldiers from isolated regimes and feeding them into a meat grinder of drone warfare. This isn’t a sign of strength; it’s the hallmark of a military running out of options and manpower.
The reliance on North Korean troops as drone bait highlights a critical shift in modern warfare. Drones have become the new artillery, delivering precision strikes with terrifying efficiency. But unlike artillery, drones are constantly overhead, watching, hunting. They expose outdated tactics and unprepared troops with brutal clarity. What we’re seeing in Ukraine isn’t just a battle for territory; it’s a brutal Darwinian struggle where adaptation to the drone threat is the key to survival. And right now, the North Koreans are failing that test spectacularly.
The Buzz of Death: A New Reality
This isn’t just about numbers on a map; it’s about the raw, visceral reality of modern combat. The shaky drone footage, the frantic descriptions of panicked soldiers, the sheer waste of life – it all points to a grim truth. Warfare has evolved, and those who fail to adapt are being left behind, quite literally, in pieces on the battlefield. Scroll down, watch the highlights – if you can stomach it. This is what the future of conflict looks like, stripped bare and unflinching.
See the hand-picked videos below
23 Dec: Ukrainians TURN NORTH KOREANS AGAINST EACH OTHER With Drones | War in Ukraine ExplainedRFU News — Reporting from Ukraine505,826 views | 27,150 | December 23 2024 19:00:16 (992 comments)[ Read more … ]
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Today, there are a lot of interesting updates from the Kursk direction.
Here, the North Korean forces find themselves thrust into a conflict shaped by technologies and tactics far beyond their experience. Their struggle to contend with the relentless presence of drones reveals a dangerous gap in preparedness, setting the stage for a harsh lesson in the realities of modern warfare.
After a week of relentless human wave assaults by the North Korean soldiers, they failed to achieve their primary goal of retaking a significant part of the Kursk Salient. Similarly, the Russians cannot present the limited gains as a victory, because it would mean admitting to the integration of foreign North Korean troops to fill their ranks, as domestic recruitment fails to compensate for the Russian losses.
The failure of the North Korean assaults can be largely attributed to their troops’ lack of experience with modern warfare and their inability to adapt. North Korea’s decades of isolation from the outside world, with minimal external influence or exposure, have left its military doctrine severely outdated, rooted in strategies dating back to the Korean War over seventy years ago. One of their largest shortcomings has shown to be the inability to adapt to the unprecedented use of drones, which take a central role in modern Ukrainian combat operations. Their limited understanding of advanced reconnaissance and precision strikes, made possible by Ukrainians’ extensive drone warfare, allowed Ukrainian forces to inflict devastating losses on every assault. As a result, North Korean units performed even worse than even the least capable Russian assault units.
During their initial assaults, North Korean forces failed to recognize drones as a serious threat, advancing slowly across open fields, underestimating the danger from the skies. The soldiers did not attempt to maneuver or evade FPV drone strikes, while Ukrainian drone operators, skilled in targeting fast-moving troops, exploited their vulnerabilities. This lack of awareness made the North Koreans easy targets, with even inexperienced Ukrainian drone operators using single FPV drones to decimate large infantry formations.
After suffering heavy losses in their initial encounters with drones, North Korean commanders attempted to adapt by setting up observation points and instructing soldiers to listen for buzzing sounds and scan the skies.
However, these efforts had little impact on the Ukrainian drone operators, as the North Koreans lacked electronic warfare countermeasures or other advanced systems, leaving them vulnerable to continued drone strikes. Combat footage from the area shows North Korean soldiers repeatedly failing to protect themselves from drone strikes. Instead of attempting to maneuver, take cover, or lie down to reduce exposure, the soldiers often panicked, and tried to shoot down the drones with small arms fire while standing in place. Ukrainian drone operators took advantage of this, and repeatedly maneuvered their drones right in between the confused troops, causing the North Korean to kill each other, as they tried and failed to shoot down the drones.
Additionally, the North Korean soldiers stationed themselves on the outer edges of forests, remaining bunched together instead of moving deeper into the woods. By doing so, they missed an opportunity to use the dense trees and terrain to disrupt drone signals, which could have reduced the effectiveness of Ukrainian strikes. This tactical error allowed Ukrainian drone operators to target and eliminate large groups of North Korean troops with just a few drone strikes, even after the soldiers had reached their objectives within the forests.
To further exploit the North Korean soldiers’ lack of familiarity with drones, the Ukrainians attached small stuffed Christmas toys to some of their drones. This tactic caused additional confusion among the North Korean troops, who wasted precious seconds trying to comprehend why a toy was flying toward them. By the time they realized the threat, it was too late; these drones effectively struck, eliminating large numbers of soldiers in a single attack.
Overall, the North Koreans continued reliance on outdated assault tactics, coupled with their inability to adapt to modern warfare, resulted in catastrophic losses across all their units. South Korean Military Intelligence attributed the high casualties to their inexperience with drone warfare and their unfamiliarity with the open terrain, as North Koreans are more accustomed to the more mountainous terrain of Korea. To address these issues, Russian and North Korean commanders may need to pause operations, to train their troops in counter-drone measures, and overhaul North Korean combat tactics, a process that could delay the Kursk counteroffensive by weeks or even months.
27 Nov: KIM JONG-UN CRIES. North Korean Unit Quickly DIES (FOOTAGE). | War in Ukraine ExplainedRFU News — Reporting from Ukraine596,204 views | 25,359 | November 27 2024 19:00:17 (662 comments)[ Read more … ]
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Today there are a lot of interesting updates from the Pokrovsk direction.
Here, Russian forces slowed down their offensive efforts in order to reorganize their forces inside the Hrodivka-Novohrodivka-Selydove defense belt. The Ukrainians took advantage of the Russian operational pause, deploying the elite NATO-trained 425th Assault Battalion Skala and 5th Assault Brigade, facing the unprepared and exhausted Russian units which based on the combat videos, seem to have just been reinforced by North Korean soldiers.
Recently, Russian forces secured control of the town of Selydove. The protracted but crucial battle for this town delayed their primary offensive toward Pokrovsk and significantly thinned the Russian ranks. This development forced the Russians to reorganize and regroup, reducing the intensity of their attacks and exposing critical vulnerabilities. Seizing this opportunity, Ukrainian commanders from the 5th Assault Brigade and the 425th Skala Assault Battalion devised a series of surprise operations to reclaim lost positions near Novohrodivka and Hrodivka.
Ukrainian command has identified that the new Russian offensives from Selydove are aimed at the E-50 highway and its flanks. Concurrently, Russian forces are attempting to advance on Myrnograd from Novohrodivka and Hrodivka. To counter these efforts and shift the Russians onto the defensive in this region, Ukrainian forces initiated a preemptive strategy. The first step involved deploying the Ukrainian Air Force, which launched a precision strike on Russian concentrations in Hrodivka. Combat footage reveals Ukrainian jets employing French-made AASM Hammer guided bombs to disrupt Russian preparations, effectively increasing their vulnerability to a Ukrainian counterattacks.
The airstrikes were further supported by FPV drone strikes, which targeted and eliminated Russian survivors attempting to disperse and hide from the aerial bombardment. Notably, Ukrainian drone operators observed soldiers among the survivors who appeared to be of Asian descent, suggesting the presence of North Korean personnel integrated into Russian units. This aligns with earlier reports, as just two weeks ago, Ukrainian fighters began noticing North Korean flags flying over newly captured positions. These North Korean soldiers are fully integrated into the Russian army, wearing identical uniforms. Although, the recent footage of North Korean rifles and machine guns in Kursk may suggest they are partially equipped by North Korea, hinting at a deeper logistical cooperation between the two countries.
Following the airstrike, the 425th Assault Brigade Skala launched a decisive counterattack. Infantry squads advanced aboard Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, which provided suppressive fire on Russian positions while withstanding hits from RPGs. Upon reaching the target area, the Bradleys dismounted Ukrainian assault squads, who proceeded to storm and capture six trenches held by Russian forces. During the assault, one Bradley was struck by a Russian anti-tank guided missile but successfully withdrew thanks to its robust armor. Meanwhile, Ukrainian stormtroopers methodically cleared the trenches, eliminating Russian resistance and securing new positions. The captured trenches near Novohrodivka established a critical buffer zone before Myrnograd, disrupting Russian plans and forcing their troops to retreat to their original positions.
Overall, Russian forces were caught off guard in an operational pause which resulted in a series of powerful Ukrainian counterattacks. The panicking assault by Russian and North Korean forces ended in a disaster, possibly due to severe problems with communication and coordination. The positions regained by the Ukrainian fighters will amplify and reinforce their defenses to prepare for further intensification of the Russian offensive towards Pokrovsk and Myrnograd, to establish a buffer zone and to delay them before they reach these cities. Such a Ukrainian approach could stop the Russian offensive in winter, as the ground will become muddy from snow, complicating logistical issues for the Russian and North Korean troops.
30 Dec: FOOTAGE. North Korean Human Sacrifice Tactic: Using Human Bait for Drones. | War in UkraineRFU News — Reporting from Ukraine381,739 views | 23,396 | December 30 2024 19:00:05 (645 comments)[ Read more … ]
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Today, there are a lot of interesting updates from the Kursk direction.
Here, in a desperate attempt to break through Ukrainian defenses near Kruglenkoe, North Korean troops resorted to human bait tactics, sending selected soldiers to their death to distract Ukrainian drone operators. However, their poorly executed strategy led to catastrophic losses, leaving the battlefield littered with bodies, and no results to show for it.
Recently, the Russian command decided to re-prioritize their advance in the area of Kruglenke, to achieve the primary goal of their current phase of the counteroffensive. These series of attacks play a vital role in the achievement of their broader operational goal of taking Malaya Loknya and eliminating the northern part of the Kursk salient.
Previously, Russian forces failed in their flank attack north of Novoivanovka, diminishing their chances of bypassing the main Ukrainian defenses in and around the village. This failure prevents them from accelerating their advance toward Malaya Loknya, as the main highway to the town remains under Ukrainian control. Consequently, their only viable option is to persist with attacks near Kruglenke, where breaching Ukrainian defenses could enable them to advance on Malaya Loknya.
However, the Russian forces cannot afford to allocate a significant number of troops and resources to this section of the frontline without weakening their positions in other parts of the Kursk salient. To pursue their objective of capturing Kruglenkoe, Russian generals once again opted to utilize North Korean troops to compensate for the shortage of Russian personnel, allowing them to sustain their advance while attempting to bypass Ukrainian defenses around the village.
The tactical terrain around the Kruglenkoe area provides North Korean fighters with the opportunity to gather and prepare for assaults within the nearby forests. These wooded areas serve as a natural cover, enabling the North Koreans to amass their forces in significant numbers. This buildup aims to achieve numerical superiority, which they intend to leverage in a large-scale onslaught to overwhelm and bypass Ukrainian defenses.
To conduct the assault, North Koreans must move large assault groups across open fields, making them highly vulnerable to Ukrainian drone reconnaissance, FPV drone strikes, and artillery fire. This vulnerability is exacerbated by the poor training and preparation of North Korean soldiers for such scenarios. Documents recovered from killed North Korean soldiers reveal their primary anti-drone tactic involves using live bait—one soldier running to distract the drone while two others attempt to shoot it down with small arms fire. However, this tactic proves ineffective, as their tendency to move in large, clustered groups allows Ukrainian drone operators and artillery to neutralize multiple soldiers with a single strike.
The North Korean lack of training and familiarity with modern technology and warfare leaves them highly vulnerable to precision strikes by Ukrainian forces. Unaware that their movements toward the forests were being monitored by drones, the North Koreans failed to conceal their approach effectively. Ukrainian drone operators quickly identified their positions upon their arrival in the forests and relayed the coordinates to artillery units. This enabled Ukrainian forces to deliver devastating strikes using artillery and cluster munitions against the concentrated North Korean troops, exploiting their lack of tactical awareness.
The remaining survivors are subsequently hunted down and destroyed by newly arrived Ukrainian drone operators, who found it easier to eliminate North Korean soldiers than their previous training targets, due to North Koreans being bunched up. Overall, the Russian generals deployed North Korean forces in yet another assault where their lack of training became a significant advantage for the Ukrainian defenders. The Ukrainians successfully detected and eliminated large concentrations of North Korean soldiers, exposing the vulnerabilities of poorly coordinated tactics. This assault once again highlighted the impracticality of the North Koreans’ improvised methods against drones and artillery. Despite repeated failures, North Korean commanders remain oblivious to the primary cause of their heavy losses—the tendency to cluster their troops in large groups. This approach continues to make them easy targets for Ukrainian precision strikes, resulting in unsustainable casualties that are likely to persist unless their tactics are fundamentally restructured.
26 Nov: LEAKED FOOTAGE: North Koreans OPERATE IN KURSK’S FORESTS | War in Ukraine ExplainedRFU News — Reporting from Ukraine500,002 views | 24,838 | November 26 2024 19:00:00 (575 comments)[ Read more … ]
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Today, the biggest updates come from the Kursk direction.
Here, after a series of disastrous defeats, Russian forces decided to change their tactics and tried a new assault on the main Ukrainian stronghold. But even more importantly, new footage revealed how North Korean soldiers are undergoing active integration into Russian formations and getting ready for large-scale combat operations in the region.
The main Russian goal continues to be to cut off Ukrainian forces in the northern part of the salient with a pincer maneuver toward Malaya Loknya. But after a disastrous failed assault through the settlements left many Russian soldiers encircled, and false reports only worsened the situation, Russians were forced to change their tactics.
If we look at the topographic map, we can see that Malaya Loknya sits on a hill chain with a hardened road running along it. In a change of tactics, instead of advancing through the settlements in the lowlands, Russians are now trying to advance over the hill chain to reach their goal of capturing Malaya Loknya. Besides being able to attack Ukrainian positions from the same height, by taking up positions in the tree line along the road, Russians would simultaneously gain fire control over the settlements in the lowlands.
Russians launched several waves of assaults along this road, while Ukrainians had set up to repulse them most effectively. Geolocated footage shows how Russian vehicles sped down the road but continuously blew up on Ukrainian anti-tank mines. The footage also shows how Russians did not use purely mechanized forces in their assaults, but unarmored trucks filled with infantry. This indicates that Russians had not yet fixed their communication issues, and expected the road to be already secured by previous assaults. After Ukrainian artillery had opened fire, shrapnel tore through the unarmored personnel carriers, as the soldiers and trucks scattered in all directions to get out of the Ukrainian kill zone as fast as possible.
Even though Ukrainian drones were able to hunt down many of the remaining Russian soldiers, Ukrainians could not prevent small groups of them from making it to dugouts and trenches in the surrounding trees. This is a typical Russian tactic, where Russian infantry scatters in all directions to take shelter, establishing new positions to inch the frontline forward, even after a failed assault. Ukrainians understood this and sent in special forces groups to finish off the remaining soldiers or take them captive. As the Russian soldiers often do not have the supplies or training necessary to fight off the well-trained and battle-hardened Special Forces operators successfully, many Russians simply surrender shortly after being taken under fire.
Interestingly, one captured Russian soldier revealed that there was a North Korean military encampment in the region, just 25 kilometers or 15 and a half miles from Ukrainian lines. He also added that that they were instructed not to disclose any information on North Korean fighters, and to only mention Buryats, which are an Asian-Mongolian ethnic group within eastern Russian territories, to hide North Korean involvement as much as possible. Later, another Russian soldier leaked a video showing how they were teaching North Korean soldiers Russian phrases. This indicates that North Koreans are preparing to engage in active frontline combat operations soon, and are trying to ensure that they will be able to work together when conducting assaults in the future.
Overall, Russian forces try to inch themselves forward with every attack, as even after a failed assault, Ukrainians cannot prevent some Russian soldiers from taking up new positions. Ukrainians maintain an active defense by clearing the exhausted Russian soldiers, while gaining valuable intel on Russian and North Korean operations. Russians are losing more and more of their better-trained soldiers with every failed assault, and likely do not have enough of them in reserve to accomplish their goals on their own. Likely, the North Korean soldiers will be sent forward as a first wave of assault, to deplete Ukrainian supplies, expose firing positions, and trigger hidden land mines and ambushes. The idea being that after this, Russian troops can come in to clean up the remaining Ukrainian positions, a Russian cannon fodder tactic that was widely applied to Russian convict recruits, leading to countless losses of troops.
Ukrainian F-16 Footage That Russia Doesn’t Want You to SeeTech936,050 views | 18,636 | November 27 2024 17:30:02 (1,362 comments)[ Read more … ]
“Eternal memory, brothers!” These cryptic words haunting Russian military online channels are the only clue to the fate of a Russian Su-34 crew after whispers speculating about its shootdown started to spread throughout the region.
Just weeks ago, Russian airman Ilya Tumanov reported the downing of a similar aircraft, the crash site bearing no signs of life. Now, with yet another Su-34 lost, an ominous pattern is emerging. A silent predator prowling the skies, striking down Russia’s mightiest aircraft with the precision of a hawk descending on unsuspecting prey.
Though this mystery menace remains unseen, speculation swirls, with many suspecting it to be one of Ukraine’s newest and most lethal additions to the war: supersonic fighter, F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Shocking Footage Shows Intense Combat Between Ukrainian and Russian SoldierOn Demand News435,404 views | 4,539 | January 4 2025 12:49:42 (1,774 comments)[ Read more … ]
Shocking footage shows a brutal knife fight between a Ukrainian and Russian soldier on the frontline in Ukraine.
Recorded on a Ukrainian soldier’s body camera, the video begins with the two men exchanging gunfire near the ruins of a heavily damaged building.
The Ukrainian soldier eventually closes the distance, grabbing his opponent’s automatic rifle.
This sparks a physical struggle that escalates when the Russian soldier draws a knife and slashes his rival in the thigh.
The video also captured an emotional moment where the wounded Ukrainian and the Russian soldier show respect to each other as one of them dies from their injuries.
The footage was reportedly filmed in Trudove, Zaporizhzhia, last autumn, but has recently surfaced on social media and Russian outlets.
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About the Author
Patryk Alexander is an associate copy editor at 4kVideoDrones.com, where he sharpens articles and helps keep the website's content clean and error-free. With a background in creative writing, Patryk brings a unique perspective to his editing that helps make 4kVideoDrones.com's content engaging and informative. When he's not editing or writing, Patryk enjoys spending time with his family and exploring the great outdoors.
