Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday accused his allies of passivity in the face of the mobilization of North Korean soldiers in Russia, demanding again to be able to use long-range weapons instead of “waiting for the North Korean army to begin to hit the Ukrainians.”
“Now we see all the sites where Russia is gathering these North Korean soldiers on its territory, all their camps. We could strike preemptively, if we had the ability to strike far enough,” Zelensky said in his daily address, accusing his allies of “just waiting for the North Korean army to start hitting the Ukrainians” instead of provide long-range weapons “which it badly needs”.
Russia and North Korea, which view the United States as an existential enemy, have grown considerably closer since Vladimir Putin launched an assault on Ukraine in February 2022, with the two countries notably concluding a mutual defense agreement during the Russian president's June visit to Pyongyang. North Korea has been suspected for many months of supplying large quantities of shells to Russia as well as hundreds of missiles. Now it would also provide thousands of troops to fight in the conflict with Ukraine.
Moscow and Pyongyang have neither confirmed nor denied the arrival of these troops, but according to the West, they are about to be deployed on the battlefield, in the Russian region of Kursk where the Ukrainian army controls several hundreds of km2 since August. Such a deployment will constitute a new blow for Ukraine, which has seen the West procrastinating for months on the aid it requests.
For kyiv, it is the absence of Western firmness which encourages Vladimir Putin to escalate. On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attacked the “zero” reaction of Westerners to the deployment of North Korean soldiers and the internationalization of the war. In this context, South Korea, a major arms exporter, has indicated that it is studying the possibility of sending weapons directly to Ukraine in response.
