North Korea just sent Russia its biggest wave of troops yet
2 days ago · 29 September 2026Share
A North Korean Army soldier in field dress uniform. File photo. Tilemahos Efthimiadis from Athens, Greece · CC BY-SA 2.0
North Korea just added another 10,000 troops to Russia's war.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's President, said it a few hours ago on social media.
He says North Korea already has more than 8,000 troops on Russian territory right now.
And 10,000 more are being picked for training, ready to go next.
He says the numbers come from new data. His words, quote "being selected for training and subsequent deployment to Russia".
So is this new? Not really. It's the next batch.
North Korea has sent troops to Russia since 2024. Ukrainian and South Korean estimates put the total so far at 14,000 to 15,000. Most went to Kursk, where they helped Russia push back a Ukrainian incursion.
And it's not just troops. North Korea has been arming Russia for two years. Millions of artillery and mortar rounds. Ballistic missiles. Long-range artillery systems. Rocket systems that fire multiple rounds at once.
So this pipeline has been running a long time. This is just the newest shipment.
Here's what makes it bigger, though. Two months ago, Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that North Korea could eventually send up to 50,000 soldiers. Back then, that number sounded like a worst case. A maybe.
Now 8,000 are already there. And 10,000 more are already in training.
So the worst case isn't a warning anymore. It's the plan.
Russia hasn't said anything about the new numbers. Neither has North Korea.
And this lands right in the middle of a separate argument between Ukraine and South Korea.
A few days ago, at the UN, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine had handed over two captured North Korean soldiers to South Korea. Those two men were captured alive in Kursk back in January 2025. First time that had ever happened since North Korea's deployment began.
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Contains modified NASA Aqua MODIS satellite data showing North Korea and South Korea with snow cover in December 2002.Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA/GSFC · Public domain
Zelenskyy said one of them tried to kill himself rather than be taken prisoner.
He also said North Korea's leader treats his soldiers as something he can trade, and gets something back in return.
South Korea says there was a non-disclosure agreement covering that transfer. And it says Ukraine broke it — announcing the handover publicly, then denying any agreement existed.
Seong Ghi-hong, a senior secretary in South Korea's presidential office, says Seoul feels "strong regret" over how Ukraine handled it.
Lee Jae Myung, South Korea's President, called it a "highly sensitive agenda". He says Ukraine's disclosure was "deeply regrettable".
South Korea's Ministry of Unification says it will review both soldiers' cases under its own laws, including legislation that covers North Korean defectors.
Why does that dispute matter here? Because it shows exactly where South Korea's help stops.
Earlier this year, Seoul gave Ukraine $100 million in aid. No weapons in that package.
Back in August, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the 50,000 warning, he also asked South Korea to help with Ukraine's air defence. South Korea still hasn't agreed to that.
And South Korea is in a strange spot here. It's technically still at war with North Korea. The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty. So anything involving captured North Korean soldiers is treated as very sensitive in Seoul.
So what don't we know? How fast the new 10,000 will actually move. Whether all of them get sent at all. There's no word on how many have been killed or wounded, or on the condition of the 8,000 already in Russia.
Neither Washington nor Seoul has formally responded to this statement.
And nobody has said whether North Korea plans more waves after this one, or whether 10,000 is close to the ceiling Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned about back in August.
What is clear is the direction. Two months ago, this was a warning about something that might happen. Now it's a specific number, already in training, on a timeline only Kyiv and Pyongyang have seen.
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