North Korea is set to triple the number of its troops fighting for Russia along the front lines with Ukraine, sending an additional 25,000 to 30,000 soldiers to assist Moscow, according to an intelligence assessment from Ukrainian officials.

The assessment also says there are signs that Russian military aircraft are being refitted to carry personnel, reflecting the vast undertaking of moving tens of thousands of foreign troops across Russian Siberia, which shares a border with North Korea in its far southwest.

North Korea initially sent 11,000 troops to Russia in the fall of 2024 in great secrecy, with Russian President Vladimir Putin only confirming the deployment in late April.

In October, North Korean soldiers were pictured being handed equipment for the frontlines at the Sergeevka military base in Primorskyi Krai.

A month later, a Ropucha-class Russian ship docked at the Dunai port near Nakhodka, 95 kilometers (59 miles) to the southwest, which could carry up to 400 troops, analysts said.

“Satellite imagery shows a Russian personnel carrier arriving at Dunai in May, and activity at Sunan airport in May and June,” said Joe Byrne, senior analyst at the Open Source Centre. “This appears to indicate the routes previously used to move DPRK troops are active, and could be used in any large-scale future transfer of personnel.”

Jenny Town, senior fellow and director of the Korean program at the Stimson Center, said the Ukrainian assessment of up to 30,000 sounded “high… but they can certainly come up with that number. They won’t be elite soldiers. Kim Jong Un has said he is all in, so it depends on what Russia has asked for.”

Town said 10,000 to 20,000 “sounds more realistic,” and that North Korea might slowly deploy the troops in stages. “There have been rumors that Russian generals have been inside North Korea training troops there already,” she said.

Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Thursday that Kyiv suspected further North Korean troops might be deployed but added that the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un, risked putting his own government in peril by exposing so many elite troops to the high casualty rates of the front line. “Russia’s use of elite North Korean troops demonstrates not only a growing reliance on totalitarian regimes but also serious problems with its mobilization reserve,” Umerov said. “Together with our partners, we are monitoring these threats and will respond accordingly.”

On Friday, Ukraine’s military chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Russia was amassing 110,000 troops near the front-line hotspot town of Pokrovsk, in preparation for a possible offensive on the strategic population center.

Sergei Shoigu, a top adviser to Putin who previously served as his defense minister, visited Pyongyang on June 17 – a trip made on Putin’s orders, and his second visit in a fortnight, the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported. During the visit, Shoigu announced 1,000 North Korean sappers and 5,000 military construction workers would be sent to Russia, to clear mines and “restore infrastructure destroyed by the occupiers” in the Kursk region, according to TASS.

South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) has briefed lawmakers in Seoul that North Korea has begun selecting personnel for overseas deployment which could occur as early as July or August, according to remarks by lawmaker Lee Seong-kweun. He highlighted Russia’s public announcement of another 6,000 North Korean mine clearers and military construction workers being sent. It is unclear if the NIS shares the Ukranian intelligence assessment that the deployment could be as many as 30,000.

The six-minute video shows a Russian military instructor declaring that North Koreans aged 23 to 27 arrive “physically well-prepared.” He added, “As fighters they are not worse than ours. The enemy runs away first.”

The Russian trainer discusses with Kim a translation sheet of basic military Russian terms to Korean. It is unclear if the North Korean trainees are new arrivals or the remnants of the 11,000 sent last year. The reporter also visits a trench network where the North Koreans live with basic comfort items such as red Korean pepper, and handwritten posters declaring in Korean “Revenge for our fallen comrades” above their bunks.

Another two videos posted by TASS imply greater integration of North Korean soldiers into the Russian military than was previously seen. North Korean troops’ first exposure to the front line in Kursk was as a distinct, separate unit, owing to the language barrier with Moscow’s troops, according to assessments by Ukrainian officials.

One TASS video shows North Korean and Russian troops working to clear buildings together in close-combat training, and another shows North Koreans receiving training with shotguns, used to tackle the Ukrainian drone threat.

The manuals have emerged at the same time as increasing numbers of videos of North Korean artillery at the front line have been seen online, and as a report from 11 UN member states last month said that Pyongyang had sent at least 100 ballistic missiles and 9 million artillery shells to Russia in 2024.

The report also echoed statements from the South Korean military in March that another 3,000 North Korean troops had been sent to Russia early this year.

Town, from the Stimson Center, said Pyongyang saw a long-term benefit to Moscow being in its debt. “The more ‘blood debt’ there is between them,” she said, “the more North Korea will benefit in the long run, even if they are making sacrifices in the short term.”

Catherine, Princess of Wales visited a wellbeing garden at Colchester Hospital on Wednesday, marking her first public appearance since she unexpectedly dropped out of an appearance at Royal Ascot two weeks ago.

Kate visited the hospital garden in the southeast of England to “celebrate the incredible healing power of nature,” according to Kensington Palace.

During the visit, the princess also met with patients and staff at the hospital’s Cancer Wellbeing Centre “to understand how gardens in healthcare settings play a crucial role in promoting good health outcomes, preventing poor health and supporting increased recovery time,” the palace said.

Kate, 43, has underlined the importance of nature in her health journey over the last year.

“Over the past year, nature has been my sanctuary,” she said in a video posted on X to mark Mental Health Awareness Week in May.

Kate revealed her cancer diagnosis and that she had started chemotherapy last March. As she underwent treatment, she stepped back from public life and only made a few rare appearances last summer. In September, she announced she had completed chemotherapy and was “doing what I can to stay cancer free.”

Although she has taken on more appearances this year, the popular royal is understood to be working to find the right balance as she returns to public duties after treatment.

Before dropping out of Ascot at short notice, Kate had attended a number of engagements in recent weeks, including two major events in the royal calendar, the Trooping the Colour parade in London and the Order of the Garter service in Windsor.

She resumed in-person duties last week when she and Prince William invited Melinda French Gates for a meeting at Windsor Castle. They were understood to have discussed their philanthropic work, according to Britain’s PA Media news agency.

Kate’s visit to Colchester Hospital on Wednesday coincided with the hospital accepting a donation of 50 “Catherine’s Rose” plants, a specially-bred rose named in her honor by the Royal Horticultural Society. She planted some of these roses, which, when sold commercially, will have their proceeds donated to The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

Kate has become deeply involved in the charity since her diagnosis. In January, Kensington Palace announced that she had been named the joint patron of The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, the specialist cancer center in Chelsea, west London, where she was treated.

Funds from the sale of these roses will be used to help the charity establish a specialist program helping cancer patients live well with the disease, and after their treatment has been completed.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has approved a law to halt cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a move which will likely obscure any attempt by Tehran to restart its damaged nuclear program.

Wednesday’s decision comes a week after Iran’s parliament passed a law to suspend cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. Iran blames the IAEA for collaborating with Israel and providing a pathway for strikes on its nuclear facilities, an accusation which the agency denies.

Pezeshkian ordered Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, the Supreme National Security Council, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin implementing the law, state-run news agency IRNA said.

It’s unclear when and how the new law will be implemented, but the decision could pave the way for Iran to rebuild its nuclear program without inspections or monitoring from the IAEA. Iran is a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which requires members to allow monitoring and inspections of facilities to confirm the peaceful nature of nuclear programs.

Israel launched an unprecedented attack on Iran last month that targeted its military commanders, nuclear facilities and the scientists who develop its atomic program. In the week that followed, the United States launched supportive strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in Natanz, Isfahan and Fordow. A 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran ended with a ceasefire last week.

Iran said its facilities were badly damaged in the attacks but that it intends to continue enriching uranium to continue its “peaceful” nuclear program. On Sunday, the IAEA said US strikes on Iran fell short of causing total damage to the program and that Tehran could restart enriching uranium “in a matter of months.”

Days before Israel attacked the Iranian facilities, the IAEA said it could not verify that Tehran’s nuclear program is entirely peaceful and issued a report saying Iran was enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels.

That document triggered an IAEA resolution censuring Iran, fueling outrage across the Iranian government who accuse the agency and its director general, Rafael Grossi, of being biased.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has repeatedly denied Iran is building a bomb and says weapons of mass destruction are forbidden under Islam. The country began enriching uranium to higher levels after US President Donald Trump withdrew in 2018 from a nuclear agreement signed between the Obama administration and Iran.