Reports that thousands of North Korean soldiers could soon join Russia in the fight against Ukraine are prompting discussions about sending European troops to support the defenders of Kyiv. Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said it was time for European countries to revisit French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to send EU troops to Ukraine, on Monday, the 21st of October, reports Politico.
“If the information that Russian killing squads, being equipped with North Korean ammunition and military personnel is confirmed, we have to get back to “boots on the ground” and other ideas proposed by Macron,” Landsbergis, one of Europe’s most vocal supporters of Ukraine, told Politico in a written commentary.
The French president made the proposal in February, but German Chancellor Olaf Scholz quickly dismissed it, promising that no European or NATO troops would be deployed in Ukraine.
“Unfortunately, we are again lagging, being reactive, but I believe in our common ability to take all the necessary proactive measures to translate President Macron’s ideas into action,” Landsbergis added.
“At the beginning of the year, [French President] Emmanuel Macron indicated that he might send troops. At the end of the year, North Korea actually did it. We are still on the back foot, reacting to escalation instead of reversing it,” Lithuania’s foreign minister wrote on X on Sunday evening, calling for revisiting Macron’s idea “better late than never”.
Western leaders are wary of reports of North Korean troops heading to Ukraine, and neither NATO chief Mark Rutte nor US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin have confirmed the South Korean and Ukrainian leaders’ claims.
Meanwhile, South Korea plans to send a delegation to NATO headquarters to discuss its intelligence on North Korean troop movements, and Reuters reports that on Tuesday, South Korean officials said they were considering directly supplying arms to Ukraine to counter North Korean-Russian military ties.
Some officials say the West is being too cautious.
“I think they are using it [the claim that intelligence has not been verified] as an excuse to do nothing,” said Riho Terhas, a conservative Estonian MEP and former general, expressing confidence that the claim of North Korean links to Russia will soon be confirmed.
Terhas downplayed the significance of the development because, in his view, it shows that President Vladimir Putin’s Russia is “desperate and looking for options because they don’t want to do mobilization themselves”. Moreover, he said that integrating thousands of North Korean soldiers into Russian-speaking units would be a huge operational challenge with minimal combat impact.
However, he added that the Europeans should return to the idea of deploying troops in Ukraine.
“It is important that we at least have that option,” said Terhas, who was commander of the Estonian Armed Forces from 2011 to 2018. “Every time we talk about deploying troops in Ukraine, it makes Putin a bit more uncertain about where the conflict is going – [and] that’s a good thing.”