VLADIMIR Putin has amassed 40,000 of his soldiers and 10,000 North Koreans as he plots to attack Kursk in just days, a report claims.
The Kremlin leader is set to try and claw back the area of Russia which Ukraine seized back in August.
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Putin could begin the combined assault with Kim Jong-un’s troops sent to fight in just days, Ukrainian officials have told the New York Times.
US and Ukrainian officials say 10,000 of the 50,000 massed troops are North Koreans.
Those soldiers are said to be wearing Russian uniforms and have been equipped by Moscow, but will fight in their own units.
Putin’s army has also been training the North Koreans in infantry tactics, artillery fire, and trench clearing.
Ukraine has built defences in the part of Kursk it occupies and could be able to hold on, officials say.
But Russia has been shelling and sending rocket attacks against the entrenched Ukrainians.
Up to 40 North Korean soldiers have already been killed during their first engagement with Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
One injured soldier, heavily bandaged and lying in what appears to be a makeshift hospital fumed at their Russian leaders.
He claims that he was told that they would be guarding infrastructure, but that the North Koreans were “betrayed” and were “sent on an assault in the Kursk region”.
The soldier added: “The Russians did not provide us with anything.
“They threw us into an assault without prior intelligence, without ammunition, without normal weapons.”
Russia’s major battlefield assault looms as Donald Trump’s election win could also change the shape of peace talks.
Ukraine is waiting with bated breath for the Republican’s next move following his historic election win.
It comes amid speculation Trump may leave the war-torn nation in a precautions position by favouring his pal Putin’s wishes.
Trump has repeatedly vowed to end the Ukraine war – with his plan on how to achieve that now being revealed.
President Zelensky says he has been given reassurance from Trump that he will support Ukraine, Axios reported.
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North Korean woes
Alongside the dozens of early deaths of North Korean troops, Kim’s soldiers have also faced a number of other issues on their expedition across to Russia.
The soldiers have reportedly become hooked on porn after being given unrestricted internet access for the first time.
Military troops who joined the front are believed to have something other than fighting on their mind – much to Putin’s dismay.
The North Korean soldiers have been unleashed into an “unfettered” internet access realm – and are taking advantage of it by “gorging” on pornography, a Financial Times commentator claims.
The Financial Times’ Gideon Rachman said in a post on X: “A usually reliable source tells me that the North Korean soldiers who have deployed to Russia have never had unfettered access to the internet before.
“As a result, they are gorging on pornography.”
Kim Jong Un has made numerous crackdowns on internet use under his ruthless communist dictatorship.
Even accessing the web is for the select few who are able to secure the required authorisation.
The most up-to-date investigation into North Koreans’ internet usage in 2016 found that people could only access a shocking 28 different websites.
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