Zelensky, who is in Iceland to attend a summit with Nordic leaders, also said some 3,000 North Korean officers and soldiers are "already on Russian territory."
"We think that they will have 12,000 soon," he said.
There were also signs indicating that Russian aircraft were transporting North Korean officers to the border areas of Ukraine, NK News reported the same day. "A Russian air force passenger plane stopped in North Korea late Sunday night before flying toward western Russia, possibly making an irregular landing on an unusual route toward Ukraine," the American news website wrote.
The U.S. also expressed concerns over North Korea's troop deployment in Russia. "We have seen reports from over the weekend indicating that [North Korean] soldiers have started arriving in western Russia," Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said during a press briefing.
North Korea has sent "around 10,000 soldiers in total to train in eastern Russia that will probably augment Russian forces near Ukraine over the next several weeks. A portion of those soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, and we are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces," she added.
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