Zelensky Warns of 8,000 North Korean Troops in Russia as Drone Tech Deal Deepens War Risks
Ukraine’s president says more than 8,000 North Korean soldiers are already in Russia, with another 10,000 being prepared, in exchange for Russian help building kamikaze drones. If borne out, the deal would bind Pyongyang more tightly into the Ukraine war and export Iran-style drone warfare to East Asia.
Volodymyr Zelensky says North Korean troops are no longer just a hypothetical in Russia’s war on Ukraine, but a deployed force measured in brigades.
The Ukrainian president stated that more than 8,000 North Korean military personnel are already in Russia, with a further 10,000 undergoing selection and training for future deployment. In return, he said, Moscow is transferring technology that has enabled North Korea to set up production of Shahed-type attack drones – the loitering munitions first supplied to Russia by Iran and now a core weapon in its strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Zelensky did not provide locations or unit designations for the reported North Korean contingents, and his claims have not been independently verified. Russia and North Korea have previously denied or downplayed reports of direct troop deployments, though both governments have publicly signaled a closer military partnership, including weapons transfers and military-technical cooperation.
If North Korean soldiers are indeed operating on Russian soil, their presence changes the daily reality for Ukrainian troops along stretches of the front line where they might be deployed. It would mean Ukrainian units are facing foreign formations whose families, commanders and political leadership are thousands of kilometers away, with few domestic constraints on casualties.
The alleged drone technology transfer carries a separate civilian cost. Shahed-type one-way attack drones are relatively cheap, can be built in volume, and are used to hit power plants, data centers, rail infrastructure and residential areas on Ukraine’s grid. A North Korean production line modeled on this system would give Pyongyang a new long-range strike option against South Korea or U.S. bases in the region, and provide Russia with another source of expendable munitions if Iranian supply is disrupted.
For Moscow, access to North Korean manpower and industrial capacity offers a way to ease strain on its own forces and factories after more than two years of high-intensity war. For Pyongyang, Russian technology is a shortcut to capabilities that would otherwise take years of isolated development, strengthening the regime’s deterrence and bargaining power in Northeast Asia.
Strategically, the arrangement Zelensky describes links three sanctioned states – Russia, North Korea and Iran, via the Shahed design – into a practical supply chain for a specific class of weapons. That matters for governments far beyond Eastern Europe. A drone that starts life as an Iranian design, is co-produced with Russian input in North Korea, and is flown by Russian operators in Ukraine demonstrates how sanctions-era partners can pool niches to offset their weaknesses.
The political message is blunt: security crises that once felt compartmentalized – the Korean Peninsula, the Iran nuclear file, the war in Ukraine – now bleed into each other through shared weapons programs and troop movements. A commander killed by a Shahed-type drone in Donbas and a planner looking at defense of Seoul may soon be thinking about the same airframe.
Evidence that would bear out or challenge Zelensky’s claims will likely surface through satellite imagery of Russian training grounds, intercepts or captured equipment, and any future disclosures by U.S. and allied intelligence agencies. Open acknowledgment from Moscow or Pyongyang of troop numbers, joint exercises on Russian soil, or confirmed use of North Korean-made drones in Ukraine would move this from allegation to established fact.
Sources
- OSINT