Currently, nearly 11,000 North Korean soldiers are being trained in eastern Russia for a war against Ukraine, the head of Ukrainian intelligence Kyrylo Budanov before The War Zone.
„They will be ready [to fight in Ukraine] on November 1,” Budanov said. North Korean troops will use Russian equipment and ammunition, Ukrainian intelligence believes.
The first group of North Korean soldiers will be sent to Kursk, where the Ukrainian army invaded earlier this year. It is not clear where the rest of Kim Jong Un's soldiers will fight. “At the moment we do not have the complete picture”, added Budanov.
Budanov's comment was made hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in Brussels that “Kiev has information that 10,000 North Korean soldiers are preparing for the Ukrainian front”. “We have our own intelligence that soldiers from North Korea are participating in the occupation of Ukrainian territory on behalf of the Russian enemy, they have joined the Russian army,” Zelensky pointed out, according to whom “this is the first step towards a world war”.
Information has already appeared that North Korean soldiers have been killed on the front in Ukraine. North Korean soldiers are likely to be fighting in Ukraine alongside Russian troops, with some believed to have already been killed and others expected to be sent, South Korea's defense chief said yesterday. Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun said: “We estimate that it is highly likely that there will be casualties among North Korean officers and soldiers in Ukraine, taking into account the various circumstances”. North Korea is expected to send more regular troops to support Russia's military efforts, he added.
The US State Department said Washington and its allies are concerned about North Korea's military support for Russia's war in Ukraine.
Until now, the regime in Pyongyang supported the Russian aggressor with ballistic missiles and artillery ammunition, but there are now indications that this is also happening with manpower. For the first time since the beginning of the unprovoked full-scale war that Russia started in 2022, the armed forces of a third country will join the war.
One reason is that Russia lacks military power. According to Kiev, since the beginning of the war, 675,000 Russian soldiers have been eliminated on the front in Ukraine. North Korea entering the war would represent a huge escalation. Kiev is calling on Western countries to increase their military support to prevent Putin's tyrannical regime from winning the war.
Zelensky said his country would continue to fight the Russian invaders even if Kiev's Western allies did not agree to support his plan for victory. Zelensky, who was visiting Brussels to present his plan to EU leaders, also said Kiev would continue preparations for a second peace summit. According to him, Ukrainian intelligence has information that North Korean officers have already been deployed in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.