In his video address on 13 October, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that North Korea not only supplies weapons to Russia, but also transfers personnel to support the Russian army. He emphasised the strengthening of the alliance between the Kremlin and the regime in Pyongyang, which, according to him, has gone beyond conventional military assistance.
“We see a growing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea. It is no longer just about transferring weapons. This is actually about the transfer of people from North Korea to the occupying military forces,” Zelenskyy said.
The President called on international partners to increase military support for Ukraine to prevent the war from escalating even further. Zelenskyy stressed that the Ukrainian frontline requires more long-range weapons and faster supplies, as this is a key element in increasing pressure on the aggressor.
According to the Washington Post, several thousand North Korean soldiers are already undergoing training in Russia, and they are expected to be sent to the frontline in Ukraine by the end of the year. Similar reports were received last year, when Ukrainian intelligence recorded the arrival of a limited contingent of DPRK military personnel, including engineering units, to the temporarily occupied territories.
Recently, the Kyiv Post reported that six officers from North Korea were among the 20 people killed in a missile strike near the temporarily occupied Donetsk, which supports the evidence of the DPRK military’s involvement in the war against Ukraine.
Russia, on the other hand, denies that the North Korean military is involved in hostilities on its side. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called these reports an ‘information duck’ that is being actively spread by Russian propaganda media.
