The deployment of North Korean troops to Russia to bolster Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine is a sign of Russian president Vladimir Putin’s “growing desperation”, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte has said.
His comments come as Western countries, including the US, say North Korea has sent some 10,000 soldiers to help Russia’s military campaign.
Some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.
Speaking after Russian officials claimed to have blocked an attempt by an “armed group” to breach the border from Ukraine into the nearby Bryansk region, Mr Rutte said he could confirm the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Kursk.
Their presence in Russia marks “a significant escalation” in North Korea’s involvement in the conflict and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war”, he said.
Meanwhile, at least four people died in Russia’s overnight bombing of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, the mayor of Kharkiv said this morning.