North Korea on Monday confirmed for the first time that it had deployed troops to support Russia’s war efforts against Ukraine, two days after Moscow’s military chief openly acknowledged Pyongyang’s involvement, in a clear shift from the two countries' official positions.

In a front-page article in the party-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission lauded the DPRK combat units for “their heroic feats in repelling and crushing the grave acts of sovereignty infringement committed by the Ukrainian authorities” in Russia’s western Kursk region that borders Ukraine.