Zelensky fears the arrival of 10,000 North Korean soldiers on the battlefield
North Korea wants to send about 10,000 soldiers to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this on Thursday at the European summit in Brussels.
“We know that about 10,000 soldiers of North Korea are preparing to fight against us,” Zelensky said. According to him, North Korean officers are already present in the Russian-occupied part of his country. “They have joined the Russian army.”
According to Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to expand his force with foreign soldiers due to “major losses” on the battlefield and problems with mobilization at home. Putin is “afraid to mobilize because public opinion is against it,” the Ukrainian president said.
Zelensky has already discussed North Korean involvement with the United States and on Thursday also with the leaders of the European Union. They do not mention North Korea in their conclusions. However, they “strongly” condemn the support of third countries for the Russian invasion. They point out that the EU imposed new sanctions on Iran at the beginning of this week due to the supply of drones and missiles.
However, the involvement of foreign troops goes a step further than arms deliveries, Zelensky emphasized. “This is the first step towards a world war.”
Zelensky tried to gather support for his so-called “victory plan” in Brussels. In it, he asks his Western allies, among other things, to supply long-range missiles with which Ukraine can hit targets deep within Russia. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not like that. Berlin has been withholding the supply of German Taurus missiles for some time.
In their conclusions, leaders launched a new call for faster and more supplies of weapons, in particular air defense systems, ammunition and missiles, “urgently needed to protect Ukraine’s population and energy infrastructure.”