Thousands of North Koreans set to join Russian fight against Ukraine, US claims

A Russian soldier fires a gun toward Ukrainian position in the Russian – Ukrainian border area in the Kursk region, Russia (Russian Defence Ministry/AP)

Some 8,000 North Korean soldiers are now in Russia near Ukraine’s border and are preparing to help the Kremlin fight against Ukrainian troops in the coming days, the Biden administration said.

The new figure is a dramatic increase from a day earlier, when US defence secretary Lloyd Austin would only say “some” of the troops had moved toward Ukraine’s border in the Kursk region, where Moscow’s forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion.