Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country could face 100,000 North Korean troops, as he urged European nations to intensify their military aid in a speech marking 1,000 days since Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Speaking to the European parliament, the Ukrainian president said Vladimir Putin had brought 11,000 North Korean troops to Ukraine’s borders and “this contingent may grow to 100,000”.
Zelenskyy did not elaborate further, but his remarks appear to endorse a Bloomberg report citing unnamed sources saying that North Korea could deploy 100,000 troops to assist Russia against Ukraine.
Zelenskyy’s short speech, delivered by video link, was a rallying call to EU nations at a critical moment for Ukraine, as Russia continues to make advances, amid fears that the incoming US president, Donald Trump, will cut military aid and force a peace settlement that would require Kyiv to cede large amounts of territory.
Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said the largest EU countries were ready “to assume the burden of military and financial support for Ukraine in the context of a possible reduction in US involvement”. He was speaking after a meeting of EU foreign and defence ministers in Brussels, which included the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, via video link.
Estonia’s foreign minister said European nations should be ready to send troops to Ukraine to underpin any peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow engineered by Trump. In an interview with the Financial Times, Margus Tsahkna said the best security guarantee for Ukraine was Nato membership, but if the US opposed Kyiv joining the military alliance, then Europe would have to put “boots on the ground”.
Analysts have suggested a coalition of the willing could consist of Poland and the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a defence group that includes the Nordic and Baltic states and the Netherlands.
Zelenskyy urged European countries to ensure Russia was pushed towards a “just peace”.
He also appeared to make a dig at the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, who recently triggered snap elections, and has long frustrated Kyiv with Germany’s slow pace of military support and refusal to supply German-made long-range Taurus missiles.
“While some European leaders think about some elections or something like this … Putin is focused on winning this war. He will not stop on his own. The more time he has, the worse the conditions become,” Zelenskyy said.
In a veiled appeal for long-range weapons, Zelenskyy said that without “certain key factors, Russia will lack real motivation to engage in meaningful negotiations”. He outlined those factors as fires in ammunition depots on Russian territory, disrupting military logistics, destroying Russian airbases, lost capabilities to produce missiles and drones, and confiscated assets – a list that largely depends on the ability to strike into Russian territory.
Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to use US long-range missiles to fire into Russia’s Kursk region has raised pressure on European allies to follow.
Britain is expected to supply Ukraine with Storm Shadow missiles for use inside Russia after the US president’s move. The prime minister, Keir Starmer, said the UK recognised it needed to “double down” support for Ukraine.
Scholz, however, continues to rule out the use of Taurus missiles and is not expected to change his mind. The French foreign minister, Jean-Nöel Barrot, on Monday said that allowing the use of its long-range missiles in Russia remained “an option” for France.
Zelenskyy’s speech was book-ended by two standing ovations from MEPs, but some of the parliament’s members were missing. The 25 MEPs who make up the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group were absent because they had scheduled an “external group meeting”, a spokesperson said.
The ESN’s largest contingent is Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland party, which wants to end military aid for Ukraine and whose senior leaders have spoken approvingly of the Russian president.
The Ukrainian leader also appealed for strong sanctions, especially measures to clamp down on “shadow tankers”, the fleet of poorly maintained and underinsured vessels that is keeping Russia’s oil trade afloat. Zelenskyy said oil was “the lifeblood of Putin’s regime” and “as long as these tankers operate, Putin continues to kill”.
MEPs last week passed a non-binding resolution calling on the G7 to better enforce and reduce the oil price cap on Russian seaborne oil, as well as crack down on loopholes that allow Russian oil to be sold at market prices.
Western allies led by the G7 imposed a price cap of $60 a barrel in 2022 to restrict western companies from transporting, servicing or brokering Russian crude oil cargoes in order to undermine Russia’s oil trade. The deal was a compromise as it was feared a full embargo would send oil prices rocketing, but Russia has since invested heavily in a shadow fleet that allows it to sell oil above the price cap.
