KYIV: North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed on Friday.
Western officials have warned that North Korean units joining the fight would stoke the almost three-year war and bring geopolitical consequences as far away as the Indo-Pacific region. The possibility has alarmed leaders and deepened diplomatic tensions around the war.
Zelensky, in a post on Telegram, said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that “the first North Korean military will be used by Russia in combat zones” between Sunday and Monday. He said on Telegram that the deployment was “an obvious escalating move by Russia”. He didn’t provide any further details, including where the North Korean soldiers may be sent.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, meanwhile, met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Friday, and the trio expressed “grave concern” over North Korean troop deployments in Russia, the White House said. The trio called on Russia and North Korea to cease arms and ballistic missile transfers, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said.
Russia has been conducting a ferocious summer campaign along the eastern front in Ukraine, gradually compelling Kyiv to surrender ground. But Russia has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region following an incursion almost three months ago.
North Korean units were detected on Wednesday in Kursk, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known by its acronym GUR.
The soldiers had undergone several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and had been equipped with clothes for the upcoming winter, GUR said in a statement late Thursday. It estimated the number of North Korean soldiers sent by Pyongyang to Russia at around 12,000, including some 500 officers and three generals. GUR provided no evidence for its claims. Dutch defence minister Ruben Brekelmans said Friday on X that intelligence reports indicated the North Korean soldiers “will probably first be deployed in Kursk”.
