KYIV (Reuters) – The participation of North Korean soldiers in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would constitute an “extremely serious” escalation in the conflict, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on Saturday. from a visit to Kyiv.
For his first trip to Ukraine since his appointment at the Quai d’Orsay in September, Jean-Noël Barrot must also go on Sunday to the east of the country, where France is financing two new centers for the protection of children affected by the war.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky on Thursday accused North Korea of deploying officers to the Russian army and preparing to send 10,000 troops to support Russia’s war effort in Ukraine. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte nevertheless declared that there was no evidence at this stage of North Korean military involvement in Ukraine.
“It would be (…) extremely serious because it would take the conflict into a new stage, an additional escalatory stage,” Jean-Noël Barrot said at a press conference in Kyiv alongside his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha.
The French Minister of Foreign Affairs also judged that “this would be confirmation that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is struggling terribly to break through the Ukrainian defenses and resistance to the point of having to call on North Korea for reinforcement” .
Andrii Sybiha, for his part, declared that North Korean involvement in the conflict would entail a “huge” risk of military escalation.
“This is a huge threat of further escalation of Russian aggression against Ukraine. There is a great risk that it will spill beyond its current scale and boundaries,” he said.
Volodimir Zelensky presented this week a “victory plan” likely, according to him, to end the war in 2025. The first point of this plan is unconditional accession of Ukraine to NATO.
“Regarding the invitation to join NATO (…) we are open to it and it is a discussion that we are having today with our NATO partners,” said Jean-Noël Barrot.
(Written by Max Hunder in Kyiv and John Irish in Paris, French version Bertrand Boucey)
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