Key facts
- Russia is preparing to receive an additional 30,000 North Korean troops for the war in Ukraine.
- North Korea is also planning to send more missile launchers to Russia.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made these remarks in an X posting summarizing his nightly video address.
- Preparations for the deployment have been underway in Russia's Voronezh region since June.
- Zelenskyy warned that the missile launches pose a threat to other Asian countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Russia is preparing to bring in an additional 30,000 North Korean troops to support its war effort in Ukraine. Pyongyang is also reportedly planning to send more missile launchers to Moscow.
Zelenskyy made these remarks in an X posting summarizing his nightly video address, indicating that Moscow has been preparing since June to deploy the troops to a border region in the southwest. He noted that North Korea is also preparing to transfer additional launchers for ballistic missiles to Russia.
The Ukrainian leader warned that the potential deployment would pose a threat not only to Ukraine but also to other Asian countries within range of North Korea's missile launches. He suggested that Russia is assisting North Korea in learning how to wage war and gain combat experience.
These claims follow North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui's recent visit to Moscow, where she met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Speculation suggests the visit was aimed at arranging a potential visit to Russia by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
In June 2024, Putin and Kim signed a mutual defense pact. Following this, Pyongyang is believed to have deployed around 20,000 combat troops and military engineers to Russia's border regions, with an estimated 14,000 currently deployed to the front lines.