Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made new claims about Russia expanding its military cooperation. In a speech on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Moscow is preparing to bring an additional 30,000 troops from North Korea in the autumn and deploy them to the Voronezh region.
Basing his assessment on Ukrainian intelligence, Zelenskyy said Pyongyang will also provide ballistic missile platforms to Russia. The Ukrainian leader stressed that this support poses a threat to Asian countries, saying, "Russia is teaching North Korea how to conduct war and helping it develop its weapons. All of this is a threat to all Asian countries within the range of North Korean missiles."
Zelenskyy also touched on Russia's activities in the Middle East. He alleged that since early July, Russian satellites have been actively monitoring Gulf countries and US military facilities there, and that the imagery obtained was passed to Iran and used to direct Tehran's attacks in the region. He said that on July 19-20 alone, four air bases (two in Bahrain, one in Jordan, one in Kuwait) were scanned by Russian satellites.
Under a defense agreement between the two countries, Pyongyang sent around 14,000 troops to Russia in 2024 after Ukraine's operation into the Kursk region.
Zelenskyy added that Moscow has been using Iranian-designed drones throughout the war, and that Kyiv has shared its experience in countering them with Middle Eastern countries facing Iranian attacks.
Meanwhile, Iran summoned Ukraine's chargé d'affaires in Tehran to the foreign ministry, alleging that an explosion that hit an Iranian commercial ship in the Caspian Sea, killing one sailor and wounding another, was a Ukrainian attack. Tehran called the attack an "aggressive act" and accused Ukraine of trying to expand the Russia-Ukraine war. Zelenskyy had previously announced that Ukrainian forces targeted a Russian warship and other vessels in the Caspian that were allegedly carrying military shipments to Iran.
As these statements were being made, Russia launched a ballistic missile attack on the capital Kyiv on Sunday morning. Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported that falling debris caused fires in at least three districts.
