North Korea is unlikely to carry out another large-scale troop deployment to support Russia’s war against Ukraine this winter, a former top Ukrainian official has assessed, despite President Volodymyr Zelensky’s recent warnings of a planned dispatch.

Andrii Kovalenko, former head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, wrote on social media this week that the threat of a mass deployment of North Korean troops has likely been averted.

In September, Zelensky said Russia was looking to reinforce the DPRK’s 8,000-strong corps with another 10,000 soldiers, after warning over the summer that 30,000 to 50,000