The estimate of North Korean troops in Russia has climbed sharply. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as many as 50,000 soldiers will be deployed, a substantial increase on the figure of roughly 30,000 he cited in July.

He also said Ukrainian forces have recovered North Korean missiles on Ukrainian territory.

His assessment of Pyongyang’s motives was pointed. North Korea, he said, will keep accumulating experience in modern warfare while receiving licences from Russia and a broad range of military tools in return.

What Pyongyang Has Already Sent

The relationship is not new, and its scale is now considerable.

An estimated 14,000 North Korean soldiers were sent to Russia’s Kursk region in 2024, helping Moscow respond to a Ukrainian incursion. Thousands have since been killed or wounded.

Beyond personnel, North Korea has supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, along with ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to Ukrainian and independent assessments. Quality has reportedly been inconsistent, with Russian military bloggers and troops describing some ammunition as dangerously substandard.

This month, an official at Ukraine’s military intelligence told Reuters that a North Korean missile unit has begun moving personnel and equipment into western Russia. That unit could field 120 ballistic missiles and six launchers for use against Ukraine.

The Ask Directed at Seoul

Zelenskyy paired the announcement with an appeal to South Korea, saying Ukraine would welcome support in an area where it faces shortages. He meant air defence.

He indicated readiness to work on a drone arrangement and other cooperation, adding that Ukrainian diplomats are in contact with Seoul to advance potential deals.

The shortage is genuine and specific. Ukraine lacks high-end air defence, and Russia has adapted to exploit that by increasing its use of ballistic missiles, which are extremely difficult to intercept without systems like the American-made Patriot.

A Package Coming From Turkey

One potential source of relief is taking shape through an unusual route.

According to US congressional documents, Ukraine is positioned to purchase seventy ATACMS short-range ballistic missiles from Turkey. Because these are American-origin weapons, Washington must approve the resale, and the State Department has signalled to Congress that it is prepared to grant permission.

The wider package described in the State Department notice includes 47,000 artillery rounds, twelve M270 multiple-launch rocket systems and more than 2,000 cluster munitions.

Strikes Across Ukraine

The weekend brought casualties in several cities.

Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment building in Kharkiv’s Saltivskyi district, killing two people and injuring thirteen, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov.

In Odesa, Zelenskyy said eight people were wounded as strikes damaged the power grid, the port and residential buildings.

He also condemned what he called an absolutely brutal strike on energy infrastructure near a shopping centre in Pavlohrad, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, which wounded nine people including four children.

Separately, the World Health Organization’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said a WHO warehouse holding medical supplies in Dnipro was destroyed in strikes on Friday. Attacks on health care must stop, he wrote, or people are cut off from lifesaving treatment. Even wars have rules, he said, and one of them is that health must be protected.

Ukrainian Strikes Into Russia

Russia said Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen in the Belgorod region.

Ukrainian drone strikes also damaged commercial sites and a home in Novorossiysk, according to Mayor Andrey Kravchenko. The city hosts a major fuel terminal connecting Kazakhstan’s oilfields to global markets, and it has been targeted before.

In his Sunday evening address, Zelenskyy defended Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries, air defence systems and radar stations as truly just responses, saying the war will increasingly be felt inside Russia itself.

Spillover Beyond the Borders

Two incidents in neighbouring countries underlined how far the conflict now reaches.

Bulgaria summoned Ukraine’s ambassador after a drone crossed into Bulgarian airspace from Romania and exploded near an international gas pipeline on Saturday. No casualties or damage were reported. Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the incident was likely accidental and involved what appeared to be a Ukrainian-type drone. Kyiv’s foreign ministry said Ukraine did not deliberately target Bulgaria and described the two sides as being in close contact.

In Moldova, police reported a powerful explosion believed to involve a combat drone in the village of Crocmaz, near the Ukrainian border. Nobody was injured, though a vegetation fire started in the Stefan Voda district. Drone fragments recovered at the scene will be examined by specialists. Police did not identify the drone’s origin.

Winter Is the Next Front

UK defence secretary Wes Streeting used a Sunday Times column to press allies on air defence before the cold arrives.

Writing that Putin is currently losing the war, he warned that Ukrainians understand what winter brings and how it can shift the picture. Allied support, he argued, must include greater air defence resources. His task, alongside German counterpart Boris Pistorius with whom he co-chairs the Ukraine defence contact group, is converting the goodwill of some fifty nations into concrete assistance.

Pope Leo also addressed the war before Sunday’s Angelus, saying tragic incidents are multiplying with a growing number of civilian victims including children. He renewed his appeal for international humanitarian law to be respected and for attacks on civilian targets to stop on both sides.

According to the UN, more than 16,000 civilians have been killed, the overwhelming majority of them Ukrainian.