Zelensky Warns of New Russian Mobilization, North Korean Troop Surge

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on September 28 that Russia has begun an 'additional mobilization' of troops and that North Korea is preparing to send another 10,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces, as Vladimir Putin signed a decree expanding the size of Russia's armed forces.²³¹

Mobilization and troop numbers

Zelensky told reporters that Russia is increasing recruitment through various methods and that preparations are under way to send 10,000 additional North Korean troops to Russia, where they are being selected for training before deployment. He said more than 8,000 North Korean soldiers are already on Russian territory, most of them in the Kursk region, where they helped repel a Ukrainian incursion. As many as 50,000 North Korean troops could ultimately join Russia's war effort, with an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 already dispatched since 2024.²³⁵⁶

"Russians have already begun additional mobilization – they are increasing the number of people they recruit through various means," Zelensky said, adding that the North Korean deployment "must be countered." Citing Ukrainian intelligence, the Kyiv Independent reported that Russia's military leadership expects to call up roughly 300,000 people annually in both 2026 and 2027, part of an estimated yearly need of about 400,000 recruits to keep its forces at strength.³²

Putin expands the armed forces

Ukrainian outlets reported that on September 28, Putin signed a decree adding 15,500 personnel to the military's authorized headcount, pushing the overall permitted force size to 2,441,630 troops, of whom 1,550,500 would serve in active duty.²³

North Korean military support

The Straits Times and the Korea Herald reported that North Korea's contributions go beyond manpower, including the delivery of millions of rounds for artillery and mortars, along with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery hardware. North Korea has reportedly started manufacturing Shahed-style attack drones domestically with help from Russian technical know-how; this claim came from the Kyiv Independent, which characterized it as Russia assisting Pyongyang technologically, though no other source in this reporting confirmed it.⁵⁶¹³

Dispute over captured soldiers

A separate rift emerged after Zelensky revealed during a United Nations appearance that Kyiv had handed over a pair of captured North Korean soldiers to Seoul. According to Zelensky, the pair were seized alive during fighting in Russia's Kursk region back in January 2025, marking the first known instance of North Korean soldiers being captured; he noted that one of the men attempted suicide upon realizing capture was imminent. "Not long ago, we handed over two North Korean POWs to the Republic of Korea. Taking them alive was no simple task," he said.⁴

South Korea's presidential office said Ukraine had broken a confidentiality agreement over the transfer and demanded an apology. President Lee Jae Myung said he did not know what led Ukraine to disclose the matter, calling it "deeply regrettable." Ukraine's presidential press office denied that any confidentiality agreement existed, according to South Korean accounts, which said the two governments had discussed the transfer repeatedly through multiple channels and that Ukraine itself had originally asked for confidentiality. Senior presidential secretary Seong Ghi-hong said the disclosure was accompanied by a false claim that no non-disclosure agreement existed, and that Seoul was considering further measures. South Korea's Foreign Ministry had declined for months to confirm the men's arrival, citing security and humanitarian reasons, and had previously limited itself to non-lethal aid, including a $100 million package announced in July that excluded weapons.⁴¹⁶

Strikes on Ukraine

The warnings came as Russian drone and missile strikes continued across Ukraine. Zelensky reported nine fatalities and over 80 wounded in the drone assaults, while Kyiv's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, put the injury count in the capital at 24; a strike on the National Academy of Sciences building in Kyiv claimed two lives. Zelensky described the strikes as deliberate attacks on civilians, saying, "Anywhere in the world, this choice of targets would be called by one word – terrorism," and that Russia "has no military objective whatsoever in doing this – it is purely an attempt to break people."¹