Up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers will be deployed in Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, raising his previous estimate of 30,000 announced in July. He called on South Korea to support Ukraine with air-defence systems, which Kyiv says it urgently lacks.
Zelenskyy also said Ukraine had found North Korean missiles on its territory. A Ukrainian military intelligence official told Reuters this month that a North Korean missile unit had begun moving personnel and equipment to western Russia and could be equipped with 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers.
North Korea’s military role in Russia
North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region in 2024 to help Moscow fight Ukrainian forces. Thousands were wounded or killed, according to the supplied briefing.
Ukrainian and independent assessments say North Korea has also supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems. Russian military bloggers and troops have sometimes described the ammunition as dangerously low quality.
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Zelenskyy said North Korea would continue building experience in modern warfare and receiving licences and military equipment from Russia. He said Ukraine was ready to work with South Korea on a drone deal and other potential agreements, with Ukrainian diplomats in contact with Seoul.
Why air defence is central to Ukraine’s request
Ukraine is short of high-end air-defence systems, and Russia has sought to exploit that gap with ballistic missiles. Such missiles are difficult to intercept without systems such as the US-made Patriot.
Zelenskyy’s appeal to South Korea comes as Ukraine faces continuing strikes on cities and infrastructure. Russian missiles hit a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv’s Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring 13, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Zelenskyy said strikes in Odesa wounded eight people and damaged the power grid, port and residential buildings.
He also said a strike on energy infrastructure near a shopping centre in Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, wounded nine people, including four children.
Weapons discussions and wider regional incidents
Turkey is poised to buy and resell 70 US-made Atacms short-range ballistic missiles to Ukraine, according to US congressional documents. The proposed package also includes 47,000 artillery rounds, 12 M270 multiple-launch rocket systems and more than 2,000 cluster bombs. The United States would need to approve the resale, and the State Department indicated to Congress that it was prepared to do so.
The briefing also reported damage from Ukrainian drone strikes in Russia’s Novorossiysk and an incident in which a drone entered Bulgarian airspace before exploding near an international gas pipeline. Bulgaria said the incident was likely accidental and involved a drone that appeared to be Ukrainian; Kyiv said it had not deliberately targeted Bulgaria. No casualties or damage were reported.
In Moldova, police said fragments of a combat drone were found after an explosion and vegetation fire in Crocmaz, near the Ukrainian border. Police did not identify the drone’s origin. The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said a medical-supply warehouse in Dnipro was destroyed in strikes, while the UK defence secretary, Wes Streeting, urged allies to provide Ukraine with more air-defence resources before winter.
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