乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基 （Volodymyr Zelenskyy） 周五声称，俄罗斯最早将于本周末在乌克兰战场上部署朝鲜军队。

西方官员警告说，朝鲜部队加入战斗将激化这场近三年的战争，并将地缘政治后果带到远至印太地区。

这种可能性引起了各国领导人的警觉，并加深了外交紧张局势。

白宫国家安全发言人约翰·柯比（John Kirby）周五表示，美国、日本和韩国的高级国家安全顾问举行了会议，并对朝鲜部署军队以可能在对乌克兰的战场上使用俄罗斯表示“严重关切”。

柯比说，这三个国家的国家安全顾问“呼吁俄罗斯和朝鲜停止这些只会将俄罗斯残酷和非法战争的安全影响扩大到欧洲之外并进入印太地区的行动”。North Korean troops are poised to be deployed by Russia on the battlefield in Ukraine as early as this weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Friday.

Western officials have warned that North Korean units joining the fight would stoke the almost three-year war and bring geopolitical consequences as far away as the Indo-Pacific region.

The possibility has alarmed leaders and deepened diplomatic tensions.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Friday that the top national security advisers for the United States, Japan and South Korea met and “expressed grave concern” about North Korea’s troop deployments for potential use with Russia on the battlefield against Ukraine.

Kirby said that the national security advisers from the three countries “call on Russia and the DPRK to cease these actions that only serve to expand the security implications of Russia’s brutal and illegal war beyond Europe and into the Indo-Pacific.”

“现在可能有 3,000 多名来自朝鲜的士兵被派往俄罗斯进行装备和训练，”柯比在与记者的电话中说。柯比表示，美国政府没有关于部队去向的确切情报评估，“但我们相信肯定有可能”，甚至“很可能”将一些朝鲜军队部署到俄罗斯的库尔斯克地区，乌克兰自 8 月占领该地区以来一直在那里控制着一些领土。但他警告说，他不知道朝鲜军队将以何种身份和目的进行部署。“It is possible that there are now more than 3,000 troops from North Korea that have been dispatched to Russia for outfitting and for training,” Kirby said on a call with reporters.

乌克兰总统办公室的一名高级官员周五告诉美联社，泽连斯基已取消联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯 （Antonio Guterres） 对基辅的访问计划。

这名官员表示，这次访问本应在本周在俄罗斯城市喀山举行的金砖国家发展中经济体集团峰会之后进行，古特雷斯也出席了此次峰会。

古特雷斯在峰会上与俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京握手的照片在乌克兰引发了强烈抗议。

泽连斯基在 Telegram 上发帖称，乌克兰情报部门已确定，周日至周一期间，“俄罗斯将在战区使用第一支朝鲜军队”。

他在 Telegram 上表示，此次部署是“俄罗斯明显的升级举措”。他没有提供任何进一步的细节，包括朝鲜士兵可能被送到哪里。

俄罗斯一直在乌克兰东部前线进行凶猛的夏季战役，逐渐迫使基辅投降。但在近三个月前入侵库尔斯克边境地区后，俄罗斯一直在努力将乌克兰军队赶出其边境地区。

据乌克兰主要情报局（简称 GUR）称，周三在库尔斯克发现了朝鲜部队。

GUR 在周四晚些时候的一份声明中表示，这些士兵在俄罗斯东部的基地接受了数周的训练，并为即将到来的冬天配备了衣服。

朝鲜已经根据一项防务协议向俄罗斯提供弹药，但将靴子放在地面上可能会使这场激化国际政治的战争严重复杂化，因为大多数西方国家都支持基辅。

与此同时，普京一直在寻求金砖国家之间的支持。

他既没有证实也没有否认朝鲜军队在俄罗斯。

Kirby said the U.S. government did not have firm intelligence assessments on where the troops were going “but we believe it is certainly possible” and “perhaps even likely” that some of the North Korean troops would be deployed to the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine has held some territory since capturing it in August. But he cautioned that he did not know in what capacity and to what purpose the North Korean troops would be deployed.

A senior official in the Ukrainian presidential office told The Associated Press on Friday that Zelenskyy had canceled a planned visit to Kyiv by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter, said the visit was supposed to come after this week’s summit in the Russian city of Kazan of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, which Guterres attended.

A photograph of Guterres shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the summit triggered an outcry in Ukraine.

Zelenskyy, in a post on Telegram, said Ukrainian intelligence had determined that “the first North Korean military will be used by Russia in combat zones” between Sunday and Monday.

He said on Telegram that the deployment was “an obvious escalating move by Russia.” He didn’t provide any further details, including where the North Korean soldiers may be sent.

Russia has been conducting a ferocious summer campaign along the eastern front in Ukraine, gradually compelling Kyiv to surrender ground. But Russia has struggled to push Ukrainian forces out of its Kursk border region following an incursion almost three months ago.

North Korean units were detected on Wednesday in Kursk, according to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, known by its acronym GUR.

The soldiers had undergone several weeks of training at bases in eastern Russia and had been equipped with clothes for the upcoming winter, GUR said in a statement late Thursday.

It estimated the number of North Korean soldiers sent by Pyongyang to Russia at around 12,000, including some 500 officers and three generals.

GUR provided no evidence for its claims.

Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said Friday on the social platform X that intelligence reports indicated the North Korean soldiers “will probably first be deployed in Kursk.”

The deployment of North Korean forces under a military pact between Moscow and Pyongyang brings a new dimension to the conflict, which is Europe’s biggest war since World War II and has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides, including many civilians.

The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious.

Zelenskyy said a week ago that his government has intelligence information that 10,000 troops from North Korea are being readied to join Russian forces fighting against his country. He said that a third nation wading into the hostilities would turn the conflict into a “world war.”

North Korea had already been supplying ammunition to Russia under a defense pact, but putting boots on the ground could severely complicate a war that has inflamed international politics, with most Western countries supporting Kyiv.

Putin, meanwhile, has looked for support among BRICS countries.

He has neither confirmed nor denied that North Korean troops were in Russia.