North Korean troops in Russia have come under Ukrainian fire, a Kyiv official said on Tuesday. “The first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region,” said Andrii Kovalenko, a member of Ukraine’s security council. The Ukrainian defence minister, Rustem Umerov, also said, in an interview with South Korean television, that he understood the first “small engagement” had occurred with the North Koreans. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine’s president, said the first battles between the Ukrainian military and North Korean troops “open a new page in instability in the world”.