Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine is interested in stabilizing the situation in Syria and believes it is essential for the country's security to remove any Russian presence from the country.
“We are grateful to every country and every leader who is now ready to help Syrian society restore normal life and build effective state institutions,” Zelenskiy said on X on December 23, pledging to "support Syria in ensuring food security."
"We are ready to work with representatives of the Syrian people to correct the mistakes of the Assad regime, in particular, regarding Ukraine and all of Europe,” he said.
Russia granted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family asylum earlier this month after rebels took control of Damascus.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on December 23 that said it was in contact with Syria's new administration at both a diplomatic and military level. Moscow is concern in particular about the fate of a naval facility and an air base it operates in Syria.
Zelenskiy in his message on X also renewed his warnings about Russia's cooperation with North Korea.
Russia earlier this month began deploying North Korean troops to reinforce its military, including to the Kursk border region, where Ukrainian forces seized territory earlier this year.
Kyiv continues to press allies for a tougher response to the development, which it says is a global threat because it involves a transfer of Russian warfare experience and military technologies to Pyongyang.
"For the world, the cost of restoring stability is always much higher than the cost of effectively pressuring those who destabilize the situation and destroy lives," Zelenskiy said.
He warned of "risks of North Korea sending additional troops and military equipment” and said Kyiv will have a “tangible responses to this."
He added that according to preliminary data supplied by General Oleksandr Syrskiy, Ukraine's top commander, the number of North Korean soldiers killed and wounded in the Kursk region has exceeded 3,000.
Syrskiy said last week that Russian forces backed by North Korean troops had intensified their offensive against Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region.
South Korea's assessed the number of killed and wounded troops was closer to 1,000. The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said on December 23 that based on "various sources of information and intelligence," the North Korea has suffered around 1,100 casualties since joining combat operations against Ukraine.
The JCS agreed that Pyongyang is reportedly "preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers" to aid Russia's war effort.
JCS added that it has detected signs of Pyongyang planning to produce suicide drones to be shipped to Russia in addition to the 240mm multiple rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled howitzers it already is supplying.
The Kremlin has neither denied nor directly confirmed the presence of North Korean troops on its soil. NATO, however, confirmed in October that North Korean troops had been deployed in the Kursk region.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the deployment marked a sign of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "growing desperation."
