Russia hopes to bring in an additional 30,000 North Korean troops to help fight in Moscow¡¯s war against Kyiv, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said ¡ª in a potentially dramatic expansion of Pyongyang¡¯s role in the conflict.

North Korea is thought to have sent around 20,000 combat troops and military engineers to Russia¡¯s Kursk region in 2024 to beat back an incursion by Ukrainian forces, with an estimated 14,000 currently deployed on the front lines.

¡°Russia wants to receive another 30,000 troops from North Korea. Since June, preparations have been under way in Russia¡¯s Voronezh region to receive them,¡± Zelenskyy said in a nightly address on Saturday without offering a source for this information.