Ukraine-Russia war live: North Korean troops ‘already in Ukraine’ as Kyiv drafts 160,000 more into frontline

North Korea’s foreign minister, Choe Son Hui, is on her way to Moscow, state media KCNA and Russian officials said today, for her second trip to Russia in six weeks amid rising concerns about Pyongyang’s involvement in Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

KCNA said a delegation led by Ms Chloe left yesterday for an official visit to Russia, without elaborating.

Russia’s ambassador to Pyongyang, Alexander Matsegora, saw off Ms Choe at the airport, the Russian embassy said in a statement posted on the embassy’s Vkontakte social media page.

“The visit of the head of the DPRK [North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] foreign ministry to the Russian Federation is taking place within the framework of a strategic dialogue - following an agreement to enhance ties reached by the leaders of our countries during the June 2024 summit,” the statement said.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Nato chief’s Mark Rutte’s comments about North Korean troops deployment to Russia, and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June.

But he stopped short on Monday of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia. Mr Lavrov alleged that Western military instructors long have been covertly deployed to Ukraine to help its military use long-range weapons provided by Western partners.

Some high-ranking North Korean military officials and troops deployed to Russia for the war in Ukraine might move to the frontline, the Yonhap news agency reported today, citing South Korea’s spy agency.

The Pentagon has already said last night that North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks”. The move will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region, according to the western leaders.

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since the second World War will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.

The US will not enforce any new limits on Ukraine’s use of American weapons if North Korea joins Russia’s war, the Pentagon has said.

On being asked if the US will have limits on what American weapons can be used if it’s a bunch of North Korean soldiers, Pentagon press secretary said: “No... If North Korea – if we see DPRK troops moving in and towards the front lines, I mean, they are co-belligerents in the war. And so, they are fighting on these front lines and the Ukrainians are defending their sovereign territory and pushing the Russians back,” she said.

“...But they would — if they are in combat, you know, they’re fighting the Ukrainians, who are fighting for their sovereign territory. And we’ve made a commitment to Ukraine that we’re going to continue to support them with whatever it takes,” she said.

Ms Singh added that North Korea is sending their soldiers in into a war where Russian casualties and losses are “upwards of 500,000 at this point”.

“That is a calculation that, you know, DPRK leadership is making to send their soldiers into combat,” she said.

Falling debris from a destroyed Russian drone injured two people and set a residential building on fire in Kyiv, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said today.

One of the people injured by debris in Kyiv’s Solomianskyi district was taken to hospital, mayor Vitali Klitschko said on his Telegram channel. He said several cars were also on fire.

A Reuters’ witness saw smoke rising over the district’s residential area, which is located in Kyiv’s west. Photos posted by Kyiv’s military administration on its Telegram channel showed a residential building and nearby cars burning in the dark.

The administration said Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian drone attack on the city and that drone debris fell also onto the Sviatoshynskyi district in Kyiv’s west, but there was no immediate reports of damage.