BRUSSELS (AP) — North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely combat Ukraine within “the coming weeks,” the Pentagon said Monday, in a move Western leaders say will intensify the nearly three-year war . Relations in the Indo-Pacific region have been shaken.

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Western leaders say North Korea has sent some 10,000 soldiers to help Russia’s military campaign and warn its involvement in a European war could also destabilize relations in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia.

Zelenskyy said he had spoken to South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and told him that 3,000 North Korean soldiers are already at military bases near the Ukrainian front line and that he expects that deployment to increase to 12,000.

READ MORE: North Korea’s foreign minister visits Russia as his troops train to fight in Ukraine

Spokesman Major General Pat Ryder said at the Pentagon on Tuesday that a “relatively small number” of North Korean troops are now in Russia’s Kursk region, where Russian forces have struggled to push back a Ukrainian incursion. moving in that direction.

South Korea, which has been in close contact with NATO, the US and the European Union over the latest developments, warned last week that it could send weapons to Ukraine in retaliation for the North’s involvement.

“There is only one conclusion: this war has been internationalized and goes beyond the borders of Ukraine and Russia,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.

The Ukrainian president also said he and Yoon agreed to intensify cooperation between their countries, increase intelligence sharing and develop concrete responses to Pyongyang’s involvement.

In Washington, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Zelenskyy’s top adviser on Tuesday to discuss North Korean troops and a coming wave of weapons the US is supplying to Kiev to help protect Ukrainians of strengthening their energy infrastructure, White House officials are privy to their private conversations.

Sullivan and Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president’s office, shared concerns that North Korean troops could be deployed in Russia’s Kursk region and what such a development could mean for the conflict.

The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly, said that during the two-hour White House meeting, Sullivan also briefed Yermak on President Joe Biden’s plans to send additional artillery systems, ammunition, hundreds of armored vehicles and more to Ukraine. send before he leaves his position in January.

READ MORE: What would North Korean troops in Russia mean for the war with Ukraine?

Sullivan told Yermak that the U.S. government plans to supply Ukraine with 500 additional Patriot and ARAAM missiles by the end of the year to help boost air defenses, the officials said.

Meanwhile, North Korea said its top diplomat is visiting Russia in a sign of deepening their relationship.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with North Korea continuing a series of provocative weapons tests and South Korea and the US expanding military exercises.

Russian drones, missiles and bombs struck Kiev and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s largest cities, in overnight attacks, killing four people and wounding 15 in a sustained airstrike, authorities said Tuesday.

Russia has bombed civilian areas in Ukraine almost every day since the large-scale invasion of its neighbor, causing thousands of casualties.

The Russian military is also pushing hard against frontline defenses in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces had captured the Donetsk town of Hirnyk and the villages of Katerynivka and Bohoiavlenka.

Zelenskyy also spoke about the war on Tuesday during a meeting in Reykjavik with the leaders of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden. He said a conference will begin Wednesday in Canada to discuss Russia’s kidnapping of what he says are tens of thousands of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

A Russian airstrike hit Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, around 3 a.m., hitting a house and killing four people, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said. Nearly 20 houses were damaged in the attack, he said.

Hours earlier, Russia dropped a glide bomb on the landmark Derzhprom building in Kharkiv’s city center, wounding seven people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. Derzhprom, also known as the Palace of Industry, is being considered for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Terekhov said Russia has concentrated attacks on Kharkiv in recent days. He urged people not to ignore warnings of airstrikes.

Authorities in Kiev said debris from intercepted Russian drones fell on two city districts, injuring six people.

Ukraine has also used long-range drones to disrupt the Russian war machine and embarrass the Kremlin by attacking targets on Russian territory.

A special forces academy in Russia’s Chechnya province was hit by drones, sparking a fire that was quickly extinguished, according to Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was the first drone strike in the war on Chechnya, which is located about 800 kilometers east of Ukraine.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.