South Korea’s military says it suspects North Korea is preparing to send additional troops to Russia after its soldiers already deployed on the Russian-Ukraine war fronts suffered heavy casualties.

North Korea is likely preparing to send additional troops to Russia after suffering heavy losses in battles against Ukrainian forces, South Korea's military said Friday.

South Korea's military said on Friday that it suspects North Korea is preparing to send more troops to Russia to fight Ukrainian forces, even after suffering losses and seeing some of its soldiers captured.

The Russian army is becoming heavily reliant on artillery shells supplied by North Korea, according to Andrii Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.

Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov said North Korea has already provided Russia with 120 self-propelled artillery guns and 120 multiple-launch rocket systems, with more to come.

It will mostly be missile and artillery troops who typically operate hundreds of tubed and rocket artillery systems as well as the KN-23 short-range ballistic missiles Pyongyang has already provided Moscow,

North Korea may be accelerating plans to send more troops to replace frontline casualties incurred fighting Ukraine on behalf of Russia.

Ukrainian forces described a different kind of enemy, fighting with unfamiliar tactics and little option to retreat.