North Korean troops in Ukraine war see “enormous” risk of escalation – POLITICO

Both the Kremlin and Pyongyang deny military transfers. And NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Friday he could not “confirm reports that North Koreans are now actively involved as soldiers in the war effort.”

But Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty last summer that commits both countries to providing each other with military assistance if either country is attacked. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol warned on Friday that Pyongyang’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict would pose a “serious security threat” to the world.

“This is a great danger of further escalation of Russian aggression against Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Sybiha said on Saturday, Reuters reported. “There is a great risk that it will grow beyond its current scale and limits,” he said.

France’s Barrot said such a move would signal that Moscow was struggling in the war. But “it would be serious and would push the conflict into a new phase, an additional level of escalation,” Barrot said.

Meanwhile, Russia and Ukraine conducted a new prisoner of war exchange on Friday, with the countries repatriating 95 prisoners each. The United Arab Emirates brokered the agreement and acted as a mediator.

“Every time Ukraine rescues its people from Russian captivity, we move closer to the day when freedom will be returned to all those still in Russian captivity,” Zelensky said in a post on X.