Around 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already in Russia, according to the Ukrainian president, who refers to fresh Ukrainian intelligence. They are expected to eventually total around 12,000.
He compares, in an interview with TT and other Nordic media, the situation to when Russia illegally occupied the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It was, claims Zelenskyj, possible because the West was silent.
No one wanted to do anything. I don't know why, but everyone was afraid of escalating the situation, he says during the interview held during the Nordic Council of Ministers in Reykjavik.
So Putin tested once with Crimea and understood that he could continue and then with Donbass, which was occupied. Eight years later, he began the full-scale war, says Zelenskyj.
"New chapter"
It is a more frustrated and angry Ukrainian president than the one usually seen at press conferences with world leaders.
North Korean soldiers are already on Russian territory and are preparing for battle. We are in the midst of this war and not just one country is against us.
I believe it is very dangerous. A new chapter has been opened in the war.
During his meetings with the Nordic prime ministers here in Reykjavik, he has brought up that he wants to see a sharper response from the USA, NATO, and Western partners.
We have received some reactions, but they are not strong enough. That is why Putin is testing, he says.
Wants to use long-range weapons
Zelenskyj takes as an example the question of being allowed to use long-range weapons against military targets in Russia in order to defend themselves.
Some countries say it is crossing a red line and that it will make Russia escalate.
Excuse me, but North Korean soldiers are an escalation – not from our side – from Russia's side.
The USA is one of the countries that Ukraine has long been pressing to be allowed to use American long-range weapons to shoot deep into Russia – but no decision has yet been made on the matter.
It means that we can only defend our country when they have destroyed it, when they are already in our country, when they have occupied our country, when they have killed our children, says Zelenskyj with a raised voice.
Only then do we have permission, as it seems now, to do something about North Korea.
Ukraine became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then, the country has been characterized by occasionally authoritarian and corrupt governments.
A revolution in 2014 put the contradictions with Russia on the edge. Russia began a war and occupied the Crimean Peninsula and Ukraine's eastern region of Donbass.
In February 2022, Russia launched its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, attempting to conquer the entire country.
