A senior Ukrainian military intelligence official has warned Russia is bringing thousands of North Korean soldiers to fight on the Ukrainian frontline.
It comes as yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a warning while speaking to his country’s parliament about a ‘coalition of criminals’.
He said: ‘Our intelligence records not only the transfer of weapons from North Korea to Russia but also the transfer of people.’
A Ukrainian intelligence official told Politico: ‘They are called the Buryat Battalion… there are some 3,000 North Koreans there.’
Other media, citing a Western official, claimed North Korea has already sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia to assist their fight in Ukraine.
The development, while worrying, is not surprising. An expert has explained North Korean troops joining Russia’s efforts in Ukraine is a ‘natural progression.’
Why would North Korean soldiers join the war?
Chatham House Russia expert Keir Giles told Metro: ‘This may seem like a dramatic development, but in fact it’s a natural progression of the increasing support that Russia is receiving from its fellow rogue states.’
In September, the United States and United Kingdom accused Iran of supplying short-range ballistic missiles for Russia to use in the war against Ukraine.
China, another Russian ally, took part in a round of military exercises in Belarus this year in a move which was seen as ‘taunting NATO’.
Iran, China, North Korea and Russia have created a ‘community of interest’ between one another, where they meet each other’s ‘needs’, Mr Giles said.
He added: ‘In North Korea’s case, it is providing Russia with the munitions and now manpower it lacks, in exchange for assistance in developing its own means of challenging the West in its own neighbourhood.’
In February, a Western official said Russia was struggling to provide enough ammunition and weapons in its war with Ukraine.
Also in recent months, multiple Russian arms depots storing munitions for the war in Ukraine were destroyed in kamikaze drone strikes – further lowering Putin’s stockpiles.
Mr Giles added: ‘The fact that the coalition partnership of countries intent on challenging and harming the West is growing closer, and areas of cooperation broader, is the result of Western reluctance to fully confront Russia over its war of aggression.’
Why has North Korea joined the war now?
Recent Ukrainian invasions into Kursk Oblast in Russian territory could have ‘inadvertently’ dragged North Korea into the war, the Institute for the Study of War said.
Ukrainian forces made an ambitious cross-border incursion into Kursk, Russia, in August, which saw them capture vast swathes of Russian territory.
Analysts and Ukrainian officials said the incursion exposed Russian vulnerabilities – but it may have also prompted Russia to search for backup.
Yesterday, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said it was ‘closely monitoring’ the suggestions that North Korean troops are joining the Russian military.
Multiple Ukrainian outlets have reported – citing anonymous military intelligence sources – that the 11th Russian Airborne Brigade is forming a 3,000-person ‘battalion’, comprised of North Korean citizens.
That battalion is said to be based in Kursk Oblast.
What could this mean for the future of the war?
If North Korean soldiers are deployed to the frontlines in Ukraine, the move could open the door for more ‘acts of aggression’ around the world if the West does not respond, Mr Giles said.
‘What Russia gets out of this deal is immediately obvious on its Ukrainian front,’ he added. ‘What North Korea gets out of it will be bad for global security elsewhere in the near future.’
So far, Russia has had ‘limited’ value from the foreign troops they’ve managed to get involved in their war effort, including tourists who were unwittingly forced to go to the frontlines.
Mr Giles said: ‘Non-Russian-speakers arriving in small numbers have had little positive impact on combat power, except as dumb forced labour or bullet magnets.
‘But organised, coherent, formed units provided to Russia by a coalition partner would be a different matter altogether – whether employed behind the lines in engineering or support roles, or perhaps eventually in direct attacks on Ukrainian forces.’
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