Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says Russia war is being pushed ‘beyond borders’

Ukrainian president’s remarks come as a number of North Korean troops arrive in Russia’s Kursk region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the thousands of North Korean soldiers expected to reinforce Russian troops on the front line in Ukraine are pushing the almost three-year war beyond the borders of the warring parties.

Western leaders say North Korea has sent some 10,000 soldiers to help Russia’s military campaign and warn that its involvement in a European war could also unsettle relations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia.

Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he spoke to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and told him that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already at military bases close to the Ukrainian front line and that he expects that deployment to increase to 12,000.

Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder on Tuesday said a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are now in Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian troops have been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion, and a couple thousand more are heading in that direction.