Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims that North Korea has sent soldiers and weapons to Russia to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine in a sign of the increasing alliance between the Kremlin and Pyongyang.
Ukrainian media recently reported that six North Korean military personnel were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike in the Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region on October 3.
The reports could not be independently verified, but in his regular nightly address published on social media late on October 13, Zelenskiy reiterated the claims, the first time the Ukrainian leader has done so.
“This is no longer just about transferring weapons. It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces,” he said.
Zelenskyy did not provide evidence to back up his claim, but speculation over North Korea’s role in the conflict has grown amid signs of tightening relations between Moscow and countries such as North Korea and Iran almost 32 months after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based U.S. military think tank, recently reported that several thousand North Korean troops had arrived in Russia and were being prepared for deployment in Ukraine.
North Korea has reportedly been providing Moscow with weapons and ammunition to support its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in February 2022.
The South Korean intelligence service has claimed that Pyongyang supplies artillery shells and short-range missiles to Moscow. The Kremlin has dismissed those claims, but has not commented on Zelenskiy’s assertions.
Zelenskyy said the development highlights Ukraine’s need for “more support” from its Western partners to “increase the pressure” on Russia and prevent “a bigger war”.
“When we talk about more long-range capability for Ukraine and more decisive supplies for our forces, it is not just a list of military equipment. It is about increasing the pressure on the aggressor,” Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy visited Britain, Germany, France, and Italy last week to ask Kyiv’s partners for sustained military assistance.
The situation in Ukraine and the Middle East is expected to be high on the agenda of a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and German leaders when Biden visits Germany later this week.
According to a government source in Berlin, Biden is set to visit Germany on October 18 for one day after a previously planned trip was canceled due to Hurricane Milton.
Biden’s original visit was to have taken place between October 10-12, during which he had planned to hold a meeting of more than 50 of Ukraine’s allies – known as the the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, or the Ramstein group – to discuss further support for Kyiv.
In frontline news, Ukrainian authorities said on October 14 that five people were killed and eight were wounded in Russian attacks during the past day. The casualties were reported by local officials in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions, which were hit by Russian shelling.
Russia claimed on October 13 that it had captured the town of Mykhaylivka, at the gates of the town of Selydove, and south of Pokrovsk, where its forces have been advancing for weeks.
Russian troops have been trying to capture Pokrovsk, a mining city that was home to around 60,000 people before Moscow launched its offensive.
Russia also said it has evacuated some 30,415 people, including nearly 8,000 children, from areas bordering Ukraine due to shelling and attacks.
Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights commissioner, told Russian media in an interview published on October 14 that the evacuees have been placed in nearly 1,000 temporary accommodations across Russia.
