Volodymyr Zelenskyy just claimed North Korea is preparing 10,000 soldiers to join Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president suggested Vladimir Putin wants to train and engage both infantry and specialists from the Asian country so they can assist Russian troops in the coming months.
Zelenskyy told a press conference in Brussels on Thursday: “We know about 10,000 soldiers from North Korea, they are preparing to send to fight against us.”
He said: “Because of the gap in mobilisation, because of lots of Russian losses and Putin is afraid of mobilisation very much... that is why he is trying to involve other participants in this war.”
He claimed that this is “the first step to a World War”.
The president also said some North Korean officers were already active in occupied areas of Ukraine – potentially referring to the personnel reportedly helping Russia use Pyongyang’s missiles – but it remains unclear how many of them there are.
Moscow and Pyongyang signed a mutual defence pact in June where they promised to protect one another if attacked.
North Korea could now be involved in Putin’s war after Kyiv’s incursion into the Russian region of Kursk.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has previously suggested it was “likely” North Koreans are dying in Ukraine, but the West has been hesitant to officially confirm there are North Korean troops on the frontline.
Intelligence sources also told Kyiv Post in October that six officers from North Korea had been hit in a Ukrainian missile strike.
While North Korea has been sending artillery and ammunitions to Russia for some time, sending personnel would be seen as an escalation.
Western officials told HuffPost UK they expect the number of North Korean troops working with Russia to be somewhere between 2,000 and 12,000, although it’s yet to be confirmed what kind of military assistance they are offering.
The sources also claimed the strains are really “started to grow” on Russia, particularly in terms of the military and economic impacts.
They expect these cracks to continue to develop into 2025 and 2026, especially as voluntary recruitment rates have fallen.
A UK intelligence source did say the Ukraine-Russia war now has “a tricky frontline”, but suggested the West is “expecting Ukraine to be able to hold where it is over the next period.”
Another insider suggested Russia does not have the “resources, capacity, logistics” to move forward rapidly, and pointed out that the frontline has barely changed over the last two years.
Even so, it does not sound like it’s going to deter Putin in his ongoing land grab, as his war aims are “unchanged”.
“We do see evidence from the people around him that the economic cost are being harder and harder to manage. I imagine Putin is aware of that,” a Western official said.
Zelenskyy also discussed the possibility of Iran becoming more involved, having already sent Russia thousands of Shahed kamikaze drones throughout the war.
He said: “Iran gave (Russia) drones, license to produce these drones and missiles. But not people, not officially. And here we see this first step in this war.”