Fico: I Won't Comment on Info about North Korean Soldiers in Ukraine for Now

Brussels, October 18 (TASR) - Slovakia will comment on reports about the possible participation of North Korean soldiers in the ranks of the Russian army in the war against Ukraine only when this information is confirmed, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Friday. The prime minister confirmed that he briefly spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the shooting of a photo of the participants of the ongoing EU summit in Brussels. Fico has made no secret of the fact that he sees Zelenskyy's 'victory plan' as controversial. Nor does he agree that military support for Ukraine, as envisaged in Zelenskyy's plan, will improve Kiev's negotiating position ahead of the next peace summit. Furthermore, Fico doesn't consider Kiev's potential membership of NATO to be a good idea, either. The premier reiterated that even though the summit confirmed that the EU will continue to supply Ukraine militarily, Slovakia won't provide any of its own military supplies. Zelenskyy told both the EU summit and NATO defence ministers that Russian forces in Ukraine might be supported by 10,000 to 12,000 troops from North Korea. "[Zelenskyy] said [on Thursday] that according to the intelligence they have, there might be other foreign soldiers in Ukraine. We don't have such information, I can only comment on it when it proves to be true. If it is a reality, we will react to it. As things stand, I don't see any reason for it," the prime minister remarked. At the same time, he noted that the war "feeds all sorts of stories" and raised the question of whether other foreign soldiers are also fighting in favour of Ukraine and on the side of the Ukrainian army. zel/mcs