Zelensky says North Korea is now directly involved in Ukraine war

# Zelensky says North Korea is now directly involved in Ukraine war

*Event date: 2024-10-16*

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on 2024-10-16 that North Korea is now directly involved in the war in Ukraine, accusing Pyongyang of supplying both weapons and personnel to Russia.

Politico reported that Zelensky made the remarks while presenting his victory plan to parliament in Kyiv. He said Ukraine's intelligence service had recorded not only weapons transfers from North Korea to Russia but also the movement of people. In his words, North Korea had become part of what he called a "coalition of criminals" with Moscow.

The same report cited a senior Ukrainian military intelligence official, speaking anonymously, who said there were about 3,000 North Koreans in Russia. The official described them as being gathered under a label referred to as the Buryat Battalion. Politico also said the Ukrainian side had previously accused North Korea of supplying missiles and ammunition to Russia since the start of 2024.

The reporting framed the issue as part of a broader war of attrition. Russia and Ukraine have both been trying to replenish forces and supplies, and Kyiv has sought to show that its battlefield is no longer just a bilateral conflict. Zelensky's statement aimed to argue that the war now involves another state acting on Russia's side.

The article also noted a separate claim from The Kyiv Independent that Pyongyang had sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia, citing an unnamed Western official. That figure was not confirmed in the Politico piece itself, so it is not treated here as established fact. What is supported by the evidence packet is that Ukraine publicly accused North Korea of sending people as well as weapons and that an intelligence official described a contingent of roughly 3,000 North Koreans in Russia.

Russia and North Korea signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty in June, a point Politico included as part of the wider context. The Kremlin, for its part, rejected the reports as fake news.

The significance of the statement lies less in the exact troop count than in the political message. Zelensky was using the presentation of his victory plan to argue that Russia was being reinforced by outside actors and that Ukraine's partners should understand the war as more than a conventional two-country conflict. The article does not verify whether the North Koreans described by intelligence were already committed to combat, only that Ukrainian officials said they were present in Russia and that their movement was being tracked.