President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that North Korea has sent both soldiers and weapons to support Russia in its fight against neighboring Ukraine.
“We see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea,” the Ukrainian leader said in his evening video address. “This is no longer just about transferring weapons. It’s basically about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying forces.”
There is no independent confirmation that North Korean soldiers are fighting alongside Russian forces against Ukraine.
In recent days there have been reports of the deployment of North Korean soldiers in eastern Ukraine. However, when it comes to soldiers killed in action, it has not been conclusively proven whether all the dead were members of the regular Russian forces – or not.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US military think tank, recently reported that several thousand North Korean soldiers had arrived in Russia and were being prepared for deployment in Ukraine.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is supporting Russia’s war against Ukraine, which started in February 2022, with weapons and ammunition. Pyongyang is supplying artillery shells and short-range missiles to Russia, according to a South Korean intelligence report.
Zelensky plans to discuss this development with his country’s Western partners in the near future.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022 and has been waging a devastating war in the neighboring country ever since.