There are now almost 11,000 North Korean infantry troops training in eastern Russia, to fight in Ukraine, Kyiv's Defense Intelligence Directorate has said. This week has seen multiple reports about Moscow planning to use North Korean soldiers,

South Korean intelligence has found that North Korea has dispatched 12,000 troops including special operation forces to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, news reports said Friday, a development that could bring a third country into the war and intensify a standoff between North Korea and the West.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country has intelligence information that 10,000 troops from North Korea are being prepared to join Russian forces fighting against his country, warning that a third nation wading into the hostilities would turn the conflict into a “world war.