Nearly 12,000 North Korean soldiers "soon" will arrive in Russia for training, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said today, who expects to see them on the battlefield in Ukraine, AFP reported, quoted by BTA.
"There are already 3,000 North Korean soldiers on Russian territory. According to our intelligence services, they will soon be 12,000," he said at a summit in Iceland with the leaders of the Nordic countries, at which he once again condemned the "escalation" of the conflict.
Russia "will use them on our territory", the Ukrainian leader pointed out.
The Pentagon said today that 10,000 North Korean soldiers are now training on Russian soil.
According to Volodymyr Zelensky, North Korea has already delivered "millions of artillery shells and missiles" of Russia to use in the conflict in Ukraine.
When asked about the risks to Ukraine from the possible election of Donald Trump as US president, Zelensky said that he had not heard the Republican candidate say that he would not support Kiev.
"Not supporting Ukraine would be a great victory for Putin and a great loss for the West, for unity, for democracy and for freedom," said the Ukrainian president.
Zelensky met with the heads of government of Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden, who promised to support Ukraine in the future.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Christershon announced new aid to Ukraine worth 63 million euros, of which 20 million will go to support the Ukrainian defense industry.
"We must all recognize that the security situation is totally new and that the future of Europe depends on the outcome of this war," said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
"I can confirm that North Korean troops have been sent to Russia and some of them are stationed in the Kursk region," NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced yesterday after a joint meeting of the North Atlantic Council and representatives of the intelligence and the Ministry of Defense of South Korea at the headquarters of the alliance in Brussels, BTA reported.
Rütte described these actions as a "significant escalation" of the war in Ukraine and called on behalf of NATO for them to be stopped immediately. According to him, the deepening of ties between Moscow and Pyongyang is a threat to security.
Pyongyang has supplied millions of munitions to the Russian side and is supporting a conflict in the heart of Europe, thereby endangering world peace, Rutte said. In his words, sending North Korean soldiers to Kursk shows the "growing desperation" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. About 600 thousand Russian soldiers have been wounded or killed since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, Russia cannot continue the war without external support, Rutte summarized.