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Russia can’t fill its own ranks—so it asks North Korea for 30,000 more soldiers and new missile launchers, Ukraine says
Russia wants another 30,000 troops from North Korea and new ballistic-missile launchers as it prepares its options for the fall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said while discussing Ukrainian intelligence reports on Russia’s plans. The push lands as Russian casualties run ahead of new recruits, and as Kyiv sees preparations for a wider draft rather than any turn toward ending the war.
More North Korean troops and ballistic-missile launchers
Russia wants another 30,000 troops from North Korea, and it has been readying Voronezh Oblast to receive them since June, Zelenskyy said in his evening address on 25 July. Pyongyang is also getting ready to transfer new launchers for ballistic missiles, he said. Militarnyi suggested that the launchers would probably come with ammunition.
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Kyiv has watched Moscow work to enlarge the Korean force since at least July 2025, when Ukrainian intelligence projected another 25,000–30,000 troops. That was a planned deployment, not a confirmed transfer, andN orth Korea actually sent about 14,000 troops to Russia by January 2026, with more than 6,000 killed, wounded, or missing.
"This is a threat not only to Ukraine. Russia is helping North Korea learn to wage war, improving their weapons — giving them experience of real weapons use," Zelenskyy said.
Those troops have been building that experience at the front for months. Anyone in Asia within reach of North Korean missiles faces this threat, he said, adding: "We will counter it."
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Losses now outpace recruitment
Ukrainian intelligence has mapped out Russia's autumn plans, and peace is not in them, Zelenskyy said. Putin is laying the groundwork to widen mobilization, he said, citing the country's casualties. Over less than seven months this year, 221,000 people entered the Russian armed forces. Russian losses in that time came to nearly 225,500 — 131,000 killed and nearly 93,000 wounded, many of the wounds severe because Russian frontline medicine is extremely poor, he said.
Moscow's recruiting has fallen behind, and a broader call-up may arrive this autumn.
Kim Jong Un urges North Korean youth aged 14 to 30 to fight for Russia after losing 6,000 troops in Kursk
Russia's July missile use exceeds some monthly production estimates
In July 2026 it fired 107 ballistic missiles and 20 Zircon missiles by 19 July. Militarnyi compared the ballistic-missile count with estimated combined monthly output of roughly 100 9M723 and RM-48U missiles, although those categories are not fully identical.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry's military intelligence agency (HUR) estimate monthly output at about 60 9M723 missiles for the Iskander-M system and 40 RM-48U missiles fired from S-400 launchers, roughly 100 together.
For all of 2026, though, Russia plans to produce only 30 Zircon missiles — and the 20 fired by 19 July equaled two-thirds of that planned annual output.
