Laos looks poised to join North Korea in backing Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, Kyiv has warned, accusing Vientiane of preparing to send military engineers to the Kursk region under the pretext of humanitarian demining.

“The latest country Russia is trying to drag into the war is Laos,” the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU) said on its website Saturday, stating that the Kremlin is working to arrange the deployment of a “Laotian People’s Army engineering unit to conduct demining operations” in the Kursk region.

Citing Laos’s “heavy dependence on external aid,” the spy agency stated that Vientiane has “initially” agreed