An army of 10,000 North Koreans is preparing to join Russian forces in Ukraine, President Zelensky has said, warning that Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict would be the “the first step to a world war”.
Speaking in Brussels before a meeting with Nato defence ministers, Zelensky said the troops consisted of “land forces [and] other tactical personnel”, adding that some North Korean officers had already arrived in occupied parts of Ukraine.
“Because of the gap in mobilisation, because of lots of Russian losses, and Putin is afraid of mobilisation very much . . . that is why he is trying to involve other participants in this war,” he said.
Zelensky gave a press conference in Brussels before presenting his “victory plan” to the European Council
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His comments follow several weeks of briefings by Ukrainian and western intelligence sources about the arrival