North Korea may deploy as many as 100,000 troops to aid Russia’s war on Ukraine if the alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow continues to deepen, according to people familiar with assessments made by some Group of 20 nations.

In the first phone call between the leaders in nearly two years, Scholz called on Putin to end the war and pull Russian troops out of Ukraine. The Kremlin described the conversation as "a detailed and frank exchange of opinions on the situation in Ukraine”,