North Korean troops in Ukraine would mean an escalation, warns France

The use of regular North Korean troops to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine would represent a serious escalation of the war, the foreign ministers of France and Ukraine said at a joint news conference in Kiev on Saturday.

Frenchman Jean-Noel Barrot, traveling to Ukraine for the first time since becoming foreign minister in September, will also visit the east of the country, where France will fund two new centers to protect war-affected children. on Sunday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused North Korea on Thursday of deploying officers alongside Russia and preparing to send 10,000 troops to support Moscow's war effort, although NATO chief Mark Rutte said there was no evidence of this at this point the presence of Pyongyang.

“It would be serious and would push the conflict into a new phase, an additional level of escalation,” Barrot said in Kiev, adding that such a move would signal that Moscow was struggling in the war.

His Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha said the risk of escalation from the move was “huge.”

“This poses a great risk of further escalation of Russian aggression against Ukraine. There is a grave risk that it will grow beyond its current scale and limits,” he said.

Earlier this week, Zelensky unveiled his victory plan, which he said would allow Ukraine to end the war by next year at the latest. The first step of this plan was Ukraine's unconditional NATO membership.

The French foreign minister said Paris was open to the idea of ​​immediately inviting Ukraine to join NATO, but that talks with allies on the issue would continue.

“As for inviting Ukraine to join NATO, we are open to it and it is a discussion we are having with our partners,” Barrot said.