kyiv, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. and South Korean officials said Wednesday there is evidence that North Korea has sent troops to Russia in a potential escalation of the war that has lasted nearly three years with Ukraine.

If the soldiers’ goal is to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, this would be the first time a third country has put its troops on the ground in this war. Other countries on both sides of the divide have sent military aid, including weapons and training: Iran has provided drones to Russia, and Western countries have provided Ukraine with modern weapons and financial aid and humanitarian.

South Korea’s intelligence chief told lawmakers that 3,000 North Korean troops were being trained to use equipment including drones before being sent to fight in Ukraine. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters during a visit to Rome that “we see evidence that North Korean troops” have gone to Russia.

“Exactly what they do remains to be seen,” Austin said. Neither Austin nor the director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, Cho Tae-yong, have provided details about how they knew about the North Korean troops, and many questions remain about the impact of these operations . North Korean participation.

What do we know about the North Koreans?

Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov told online military newspaper “The War Zone” on Tuesday that North Korean troops were arriving in Russia’s Kursk region as early as Wednesday to help Russian troops fight off a border incursion Ukrainian.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters on Monday that North Korean officers and technical personnel had already been spotted in Russian-occupied territories. He did not specify when.

“I believe they first sent officers to assess the situation before deploying troops,” Zelensky said. He warned that third-country participation could turn the conflict into a “world war” and Austin said it would be a “very, very serious problem” if Pyongyang actually joined the war on Russia’s side.

What is Ukraine doing?

Ukraine is preparing as if the fight against North Korea on its territory was inevitable.

An injection of 10,000 North Korean troops, as Ukrainian and South Korean intelligence claims, “could significantly destabilize Ukraine’s defense and significantly accelerate the advance of Russian forces,” said Glib Voloskyi, an analyst at a Ukrainian think tank, Come. Back Alive Initiative Center.

Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” project, a hotline encouraging Russian soldiers to surrender, released a video in Korean on Wednesday calling on North Korean soldiers to surrender.

“We are calling on the soldiers of the Korean People’s Army, who were sent to help the Putin regime. You shouldn’t die for no reason on someone else’s land. There is no need to repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home! »

How is the West reacting?

Zelensky told reporters on Monday that the European Union and the United States had been cautious in publicly addressing North Korean troops fighting alongside Russia – calling their reactions “very restrained.”

German and British officials also weighed in, with South Korea hinting it could support Ukraine with military weapons if North Korea is confirmed to be involved.

“We don’t even know whether it’s 1,500 or 12,000 soldiers, or what kind of soldiers are coming to Russia to fight where and against,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. “It’s a kind of escalation and it shows us a very important, a very important aspect. International conflicts are approaching very quickly.

British Defense Secretary John Healey said there was “not just concern about the possibility of an escalation of conflict in Europe. There is also an indivisible connection to security concerns in the Indo-Pacific.”

Why does Russia need North Korea?

North Korea and Russia, both facing the West separately, have deepened military cooperation over the past two years. In June, they signed a defense agreement requiring both countries to provide military assistance if the other is attacked.

For analysts, the arrival of troops would be a sign that the war is not going as Russia had planned.

“I think Ukraine is depleting the Russian military as we speak. You’re not going to get thousands of troops from North Korea if your war is going well,” said Justin Crump, a former British tank commander who runs Sibylline, a strategic consulting firm. “You don’t need it.”

North Korea has already sent more than 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional weapons to Russia since August 2023 to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

These missiles are actively used against Ukrainian targets, Kyiv officials say.

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Associated Press journalists Hanna Arhirova and Illia Novikov contributed. Danica Kirka contributed from London.