Zelensky Details Three Threats as North Korea, Iran and China Deepen Ties with Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has laid out three distinct threats he says Ukraine is tracking simultaneously, pointing to North Korea, Iran and China as each deepening their military support for Russia. The Ukrainian president made the comments in an interview with Sky News.

Asked whether renewed threats from Tehran raised the risk of a direct Iranian attack on Ukraine, Zelensky argued the country had, in effect, already been at war with Kyiv for years.

We must be careful. We must do everything not to open a new front in any way. But we must be honest. The Iranians and North Koreans have already attacked us, he said. He added that Ukraine hoped the two countries would not escalate their involvement further, but that Kyiv had to prepare for every possibility regardless.

North Korea's Troop Pipeline

Zelensky pointed to Pyongyang's growing military commitment to Moscow as the first of the three threats. He said North Korea had already sent thousands of troops to fight alongside Russian forces, alongside repeated weapons shipments stretching back to the early stages of the war.

Zelensky told Sky News the Iranians gave weapons, the North Koreans gave weapons, drones, missile shells, 155-calibre artillery shells.

And in the end, people, as you remember, 10,000 North Koreans, he added. He stressed that this support began at the very beginning, without any messages, any kind of escalation from our side, and said Kyiv had done nothing to provoke either country before the shipments started.

The president added that this pattern of assistance was precisely why Ukraine could no longer take either government's neutrality claims at face value.

We have to be ready for everything. Just be ready and understand that we cannot trust these people, he said.

Iran's Drones Turned Missiles

The second threat Zelensky identified centres on Tehran's supply chain to Moscow, which he said began with drones and has since evolved into something more advanced. He pushed back firmly on any suggestion that Iran remains uninvolved in the war.

They gave thousands of these drones... then they gave licences. What did they do? Did they attack us? I think yes. So they already did it, Zelensky said. He was referring to Iran's transfer of Shahed drone technology and production licences to Russia in the early years of the invasion, technology Moscow has since used extensively against Ukrainian cities.

His comments came days after Iran accused Ukraine of striking one of its commercial vessels in the Caspian Sea, an incident Tehran's foreign ministry has called a violation of international law. Iran has said it will respond in line with its right to self-defence, while Ukrainian officials have not disputed that the strike took place.

Zelensky Alleges Chinese Satellite Assistance

The third and, according to Zelensky, most serious threat concerns Beijing. Zelensky described China as assisting Russia with satellite technology and targeting systems, which he said was helping Moscow strike Ukraine with greater precision than before.

The claim is separate from an earlier accusation Zelensky made in December 2025, when he said there had been what he described as correlations — suggesting a pattern, not a proven link — between Chinese satellite imagery of Ukrainian territory and Russian strikes on energy infrastructure. At the time, that claim was not independently confirmed.

If the overlapping support Zelensky describes is accurate, it points to a deepening network of state backers propping up Russia's war effort, spanning troops, munitions and technology. Kyiv and several Western officials have argued this alliance carries implications well beyond Ukraine, potentially affecting security in Asia and the Gulf.

The claims remain Ukraine's own assessment and have not been independently confirmed by North Korea, Iran or China. All three governments have previously denied direct military involvement in the war. Western intelligence agencies have not publicly confirmed the claims but are understood to be examining them separately.