Ukrainian president heads to EU and Nato to seek backing for ‘victory plan’

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, said a Nato membership invitation would provide his country with the ultimate security guarantee to protect it from Russia (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had intelligence information that 10,000 troops from North Korea were being prepared to join Russian forces fighting against his country, warning that a third nation wading into the hostilities would turn the conflict into a “world war”.

Mr Zelenskyy did not go into any further details about the claim that came a day after US deputy secretary of state Kurt Campbell said in Seoul that Washington and its allies were alarmed by North Korea’s military support for Russia’s war in Ukraine but could not confirm Ukrainian claims that North Korean soldiers were sent to fight for Moscow.