Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claims that up to 100,000 North Korean troops could be deployed to the Ukraine conflict.
According to Reuters and other news outlets, in a virtual address to a special session of the European Parliament in Brussels, Zelenskyy reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has already moved 11,000 North Korean soldiers to the Ukrainian border. He warned that this force could potentially expand to 100,000.
While Zelenskyy didn’t provide further details on the North Korean troop deployment, The Guardian noted that his statement corroborated a recent Bloomberg report.
Bloomberg reported, citing sources familiar with G20 analysis, that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un could dispatch up to 100,000 troops to support Putin. The deployment is expected to occur gradually through rotations rather than as a single large-scale movement.
Dmytro Ponomarenko, Ukraine’s Ambassador to South Korea, revealed that the Ukrainian government anticipates a maximum of 15,000 North Korean troops deployed for combat operations in Russia’s Kursk region and the occupied areas of eastern Ukraine’s Donbas will be rotated every few months.
Marking the 1,000th day since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Zelenskyy’s speech called for increased military support from European nations.
The Guardian highlighted that Zelenskyy’s brief address aimed to galvanize EU countries at a critical juncture. This comes amid growing concerns that a potential Trump administration might slash military aid and pressure Ukraine into accepting a peace deal that legitimizes Russia’s territorial gains.
Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, expressed his firm belief that Russia would not halt its aggression, emphasizing the critical need for ramped-up support to secure Ukraine’s victory en route to an EU defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
French President Emmanuel Macron took to X (formerly Twitter), stating, “A thousand days that Ukraine has bravely resisted an illegal and unjustifiable war of aggression. … A thousand days that we have stood resolutely alongside Ukraine and its people, to ensure the triumph of freedom, peace, and justice.“
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski informed reporters that major EU nations are prepared to shoulder the burden of military and financial support for Ukraine, anticipating a potential reduction in U.S. involvement.
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