Zelensky expects North Korean troops in Ukraine soon
· RTE.ieUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Russia could send North Korean troops into battle as early as Sunday and urged international pressure on the Kremlin and Pyongyang.
"According to intelligence reports, on 27-28 October, Russia will use the first North Korean military in combat zones," the Ukrainian leader said on social media, calling for "tangible pressure" to be placed on Russia and North Korea.
His comments come as Ukrainian prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into North Korea's support for Russia in the war as a possible crime of aggression.
By arming and supplying ground forces engaged in fighting against Ukraine, North Korean officials could face charges, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
"We are documenting and collecting evidence of all possible aspects of such involvement as part of the core proceeding on the crime of aggression," the office said in a statement.
Aspects of the alleged crime include supplying arms to the Russian Federation, organising training for Russian military personnel and direct participation by North Korean forces in hostilities, it said.
Ukraine's military intelligence agency, South Korea and several Western governments have said that North Korean troops trained in Russia have been deployed in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces staged a major incursion in August.
The Kremlin has previously dismissed reports about the North's troop deployment as "fake news". But Russian President Vladimir Putin, asked about the issue yesterday, did not directly deny that North Korean troops were in Russia.
The Ukrainian intelligence agency has said a total of around 12,000 North Korean troops, including 500 officers and three generals, were already in Russia, and training was taking place on five military bases.
The Dutch Defence Ministry said its intelligence confirmed at least 1,500 North Korean troops were expected to be deployed in the short term to assist Russia's combat operations against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russia sent two waves of drones at Kyiv overnight in its 15th air attack on the capital this month, city officials said.
More than a dozen drones were downed over the city during the strike, which lasted around four hours, city military administrator Serhiy Popko said on Telegram.
He added that authorities had not received any reports of injuries and that debris had ignited a fire that was later extinguished.
Overall, Ukrainian air defences destroyed 36 out of 63 drones launched overnight by Russia over various parts of Ukraine, Kyiv's air force said.
Most were downed over the Kyiv and southern Odesa regions, it added, while another 16 were "locationally lost".
Russia has denied targeting civilians in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, but has regularly fired missiles and drones at towns and cities behind the front line.