North Korean troops deployed a unique air defense system in Russia's Kursk region, but the Russians destroyed it by mistake, Forbes reported.
When North Korea's Eleventh Army Corps arrived in Kursk to support Russian troops fighting Ukrainian forces, it brought with it anti-tank vehicles, howitzers, rocket launchers and a rare air defense system.
What's unique about this system is its appearance. The air defense complex is a combination of a large wheeled chassis with a radar and a Russian "Thor" (surface-to-air) missile launcher, which usually moves on tracks. The North Korean "Thor" is so unusual that the Russians themselves apparently did not recognize it as friendly. Russian drones spotted and hit the North Korean machine, destroying it, the sources said.
The Russians even released a video of the attack, believing they had hit Ukrainian air defenses. But it appears that what was initially thought to be a "Western-made radar system" was actually a North Korean version of the "Tor" air defense system, Polish analysts at WarVehicleTracker noted.
The Russian drone operators were not warned about the arrival of the North Korean equipment. This is a painful loss for the Russian-North Korean forces (numbering 60,000 in the Kursk region), which have been trying to push out 20,000 Ukrainians for months. In August, the ZSU launched a surprise offensive on Russian territory and occupied part of the region.