Zelenskyy asks allies to act on reports of North Korean troops helping Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on global allies not to “shy away” from responding to reports that Pyongyang is supplying troops to help Russia wage war on Ukraine, saying late Tuesday that intelligence suggests up to 12,000 North Korean soldiers are currently training for deployment.

“We have information that two units of military personnel from North Korea are being trained — potentially even two brigades of 6,000 people each,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address, adding, “it is important that our partners do not shy away from this challenge.”

Zelenskyy’s appeal comes amid reports that Russia’s allies, particularly North Korea and China, are boosting their support for President Vladimir Putin as he continues his attempted full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading some European leaders to call for Kyiv’s Western backers to send reinforcements of their own. On Sunday, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told POLITICO it’s time to revisit discussions about helping Ukraine with “boots on the ground,” and called the European response thus far “lagging.”

But most Western leaders have responded with trepidation, with neither the U.S. nor NATO confirming the reports from Ukraine and South Korea that North Korea had deployed troops to serve alongside Putin’s forces. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Monday asked South Korea to brief the alliance on the reports.

Zelenskyy, in his Tuesday address, said the lack of collective response to North Korea’s involvement sends the wrong message to Moscow.

“If North Korea can intervene in the war in Europe, then the pressure on this regime is definitely not strong enough,” Zelenskyy cautioned. “Aggressors must be stopped. We expect a firm, concrete response from the world. Hopefully, not only in words.”