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.”
