Ukrainian soldiers have engaged with North Korean troops in Russia for the first time, Ukraine’s defense minister said Tuesday. The North Koreans were sent there to assist Russia in the ongoing fight with Ukraine. Ukraine reportedly fired the first shot, according to ABC News.

The reported exchange of fire is the first confirmation that the two armies have met since North Korea deployed its forces to the conflict that is nearing its 1,000-day length. The two forces met in “small-scale” combat that amounted to North Korea’s first armed conflict in over 70 years, since the end of the Korean War in 1953. Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said North Korean soldiers are mixed with Russian troops and are wearing the same uniforms, making it nearly impossible to say if any North Koreans have been wounded or killed in fighting. Ukraine continues to insist that it should be a member of NATO.

Umerov reportedly said about 3,000 North Koreans will join the war in the Kursk area. His words were confirmed by Andrii Kovalenko, the head of the counter-disinformation branch of Ukraine’s Security Council, who said “the first North Korean troops have already been shelled, in the Kursk region.” North Korea may send more soldiers from its 1.3 million member army.

“Despite integration challenges — including communication barriers and differing military doctrines — the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia represents a significant shift in European and Asian security relations,” according to an analysis published Tuesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations, an international think tank.c“For the first time in generations, troops from East Asia are actively engaging in a European conflict.”

The fighting capability of North Korea’s troops is unknown but will probably not prove crucial in what appears to be Ukraine’s eventual defeat with Russia continuing to advance on all fronts, according to the UK’s Ministry of Defense, which said Russia continues to maintain superior troop levels and is able to replenish losses. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “victory plan” involves granting his country NATO status and embroiling the US in a war with Russia, both direct trips to a nuclear confrontation.