Lukashenko doubts Putin’s intentions to involve North Korean troops in war against Ukraine – ISW

This is according to a report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), as cited by Ukrinform.

The ISW summary referenced Lukashenko's response to a question from the BBC on October 23 about reports suggesting that North Korean troops might fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. Lukashenko dismissed these claims as "rubbish," stating that Putin "would never try to persuade” another state to deploy its military in Russia's war against Ukraine and noted that the deployment of armed forces from any state, including Belarus, would be a "step towards the escalation" of the war.

Lukashenko further claimed that if Belarus were to become involved in the war, this would be the “path to escalation" and provoke NATO to deploy their forces to Ukraine in response. He also continued to deny Belarus’s involvement in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, specifically from Belarusian territory, as the report notes.

The ISW analysts highlighted that Lukashenko also gave an interview to the Russian state-run TV channel ‘Rossiya 1,’ in which he claimed that he did not believe that the Russian leadership or military needs North Korean troops as there are enough Russian forces on the front and Russia has significant mobilization resources.

“Lukashenko claimed that Moscow understands that the deployment of North Korean forces to the war would be "undesirable for Russia" and that the West will respond by sending NATO troops to Ukraine,” the ISW analysts reported.

The ISW noted that the Kremlin-affiliated TASS news agency did not report on Lukashenko’s remarks about how the use of North Korean forces in Russia's war against Ukraine is not in Russia's interests and only reported on his claims that NATO would deploy troops to Ukraine in response to the participation of North Korean forces in the war.

Meanwhile, on October 24, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate reported that the first North Korean military units, trained at Russian eastern training grounds, have already arrived in the combat zone of the Russia-Ukraine war.