Russia just brought in more North Korean troops and nobody agrees on the numbers
2 days ago · 29 September 2026Share
Houston, Texas captured by a KH-9 spy satellite on November 26, 1972 at approximately 2-meter per-pixel resolution. File photo. SpaceFrom.Space · Public domain
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's President, gave his evening address a few hours ago.
He said Russia wants to bring more North Korean troops into the war.
He put the number at 30,000 more soldiers.
But that's not what other reporters heard in the same speech.
RFE/RL, working with AFP and Reuters, says Zelensky told them something different. About 8,000 North Korean troops are already in Russia. A further 10,000 are being prepared to send in.
So which is it? Nobody has explained the gap. Not Zelensky's office, not the reporters in the room.
Here's what both sides agree on. Ukrainian intelligence has tracked construction work in Russia's Voronezh region since June. That's where the incoming North Korean troops would be housed.
And this isn't new. North Korean soldiers have already been fighting alongside Russia for over a year. South Korean and Ukrainian sources have said thousands were killed or wounded in Russia's Kursk region.
Now here's where the story gets stretched.
In recent reporting, a much older claim about Russia and Iran is being folded back in, as if it just happened.
Back in July, Zelensky said Russian spy satellites were tracking Gulf-state and American military bases in the Middle East. He said the same imagery was later showing up in Iran, and that it lined up with the timing of Iranian strikes.
He said four air bases fell inside the satellites' view on 19 and 20 July. Two in Bahrain. One in Jordan. One in Kuwait.
Zelensky says quote "the purpose is clear".
That claim is more than two months old. It has not changed since July. It is simply being repeated now as though it's fresh.
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Satellite relief map of the Middle East. File photo. Merikanto · CC BY-SA 4.0
There's a second piece, and it's older still.
Back in March, John Ratcliffe, the CIA Director, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Iran was asking for help. He said Iran was requesting intelligence assistance from Russia, from China, and from other countries opposed to the United States.
He didn't say more in open session. The rest of his answer stayed classified.
And a third piece, also from March.
Politico reported that Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin envoy who runs Russia's sovereign wealth fund, met two US envoys in Miami. The report says he offered a trade. Russia would stop sharing intelligence with Iran, if the US stopped its intelligence support for Ukraine.
Washington said no.
But here's the twist. Russia says this never happened.
Kirill Dmitriev called the report fake, on social media, back in March. The Kremlin called it Western disinformation.
So an offer Russia denies making is now getting cited as a live bargaining position. Nobody can say whether it was ever really on the table, or whether it still is.
One more thread, separate from all of this. Ratcliffe made an unannounced trip to Moscow in late August. He met Russian intelligence figures, not Vladimir Putin. Donald Trump, the US President, called the visit semi-routine.
One report says Ratcliffe and Zelensky crossed paths at Shannon Airport in Ireland, while their planes refuelled, and spoke informally. But that comes from two unnamed people, and nobody else has confirmed it.
So strip it all back. What's actually confirmed and current is Zelensky's troop warning from today. Everything about Iran, the satellites and the Kremlin's trade offer is weeks or months old, and it's being used as background, dressed up as new confirmation.
Russia hasn't answered Zelensky's satellite claim since July. It has denied the trade-offer story since March. Neither position moved today.
So three things are still open. How many North Korean troops Russia is really bringing in. Whether the Iran-satellite claim was even said again today. And whether any version of the Kremlin's trade offer still stands.
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