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North Korea is sending weapons and soldiers to support Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

He made the comments on Sunday during his daily address to the nation, adding that Ukraine’s relations with Western partners must evolve to keep the hostile alliance at bay.

“When we talk about more long-range capabilities for Ukraine and more decisive supplies for our armed forces, it is not just a list of military equipment,” he said.

“It is about increasing the pressure on the aggressor, which for Russia will be stronger than they can withstand. And it’s about preventing a bigger war.”

The Ukrainian leader said he would continue to pursue his “victory plan” – a proposal that includes the alleged right conditions to bring about an end to the war – to guarantee peace.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has become one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most important allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.

The claim that North Korea is sending soldiers to support Russian forces was floated first on Oct. 11, after media reports suggested that senior officials in Kiev and Seoul claimed North Korean military engineers had been deployed to support Russia in its ballistic missile target Ukraine.

The media report also claimed that North Korean troops were fighting in Ukraine.

The Kremlin rejected the claims, with Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters in Moscow: “This looks like another piece of fake news.”

Washington claims Pyongyang has shipped more than 16,000 shipping containers of ammunition to Russia.