CRACK Ukrainian troops have already wiped out at least 40 “elite” North Korean soldiers deployed by Vladimir Putin to regain his invaded Kursk territory.
It comes just days after thousands of soldiers from Pyongyang were sent deep inside Russia to help Moscow win its bloody war against Ukraine.
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Evil Putin and ruthless dictator Kim Jong-un have been forging a close relationship to form what has been dubbed an “Axis of evil” against the West.
The tubby tyrant is now committed to helping out a desperate Putin – who has been losing a record number of men – to win back Kursk.
He has sent 10,000 troops to help them fight off Kyiv’s troops in the Kursk region and win the “holy war”.
However, up to 40 North Korean soldiers have already been killed during their first engagement with Ukrainian troops in Kursk.
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One severely wounded survivor who is now being treated in a field hospital said: “Russian dogs rushed us to attack,” but that the Ukrainians had “covered us in artillery and drones”.
Speaking of the bloodbath assault from Kyiv, which happened near the village of Lyubimovka, he said: “There were forty of us, but all are dead.
“I am all alone here now, I have nothing left to lose.”
Heavily bandaged and lying in what appears to be a makeshift hospital bed, the soldier revealed the horror of the assault, saying that his brother[s] Kim and Minho had been killed and that he had survived by hiding under headless bodies.
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.”
Choe Son Hui, North Korea’s foreign minister who met Kremlin’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov in Moscow today, said: “Kim Jong-un gave us orders that we should invariably and powerfully support and provide assistance to the Russian army their holy war.”
But ever since North Korean military presence on Russian soil was confirmed, several experts have cast doubts over the military abilities of Pyongyang’s troops.
One senior Ukrainian commander exclusively told The Sun: “They’re not a credible force.
“I can’t think of anyone in the [Ukrainian military] that would worry about finding themselves on the zero line facing Kim Jong-Un’s troops.”
“I don’t have any sympathy for the North Korean […] Putin is just using them for the meat grinder.”
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said that more North Korean troops, dressed in Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment, are headed towards the border – dubbing the move “dangerous and destabilising”.
Austin, speaking alongside the South Korean Defence Minister, Kim Yong Hyun, said that the “likelihood is pretty high” that Russia will use the North Korean troops in combat.
But Kyiv believes most of the North Koreans deployed to fight will try to abandon their positions and flee the war.
“We believe that many [of the North Koreans] will desert their posts to defect, most likely to try and reach South Korea,” said the Ukrainian commander.
“If you were a North Korean, wouldn’t you do the same?”
The Sun revealed a few days ago how at least 18 soldiers from North Korea fled from their positions before even reaching the frontlines.
Cruel Russian authorities detained at least 18 soldiers who were found some 40 miles away from their designated military positions, The Kyiv Independent reported.
They were trying to escape after reportedly being left inside a forest in Kursk without food and other essentials for days.
A source from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence told The Kyiv Post: “It was established that the North Koreans were training Russian soldiers in the use of balloons for military purposes.
“Meanwhile, the Russian soldiers were teaching the North Koreans modern infantry combat tactics.”
Ukrainian forces are thought to be in control of more than a thousand square kilometres of sovereign Russian territory in the Kursk region, including the strategically important town of Sudzha.
It marks the first-ever invasion on Russian soil since World War Two.
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ESCALATION OF WAR
Putin has been sent around 10,000 troops to be trained up before being deployed in the Kursk region in “the next several weeks,” says Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
She added: “We are increasingly concerned that Russia intends to use these soldiers in combat or to support combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region.”
General Kim Yong Bok, the deputy head of the North Korean army, is reportedly set to march into Ukraine alongside Pyongyang’s troops, according to Kyiv’s intelligence.
Bok, known as a veteran of the country’s Storm Corps special forces, is often pictured standing beside his tyrant boss and taking down notes.
Ukraine believes Bok will be the highest-ranked North Korean officer sent to help Russia, they told the United Nations this week.
At the same meeting between Kyiv and the UN, shocking new figures emerged stating that over 8,000 North Korean troops may enter the war zone in Kursk.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a news conference in Washington that he expects the troops to begin combat “in the coming days”.
He added that Russian troops have been asked to train up the new recruits in artillery, drones and “basic infantry operations, including trench clearing”.
In a stern warning to the North Korean regime, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said: “Make no mistake, if these North Korean troops engage in combat or combat support operations against Ukraine, they would make themselves legitimate military targets.”
Other US officials have previously said any foreign fighter helping out an enemy of the US will only ever return home in “body bags”.
‘DON’T DIE ON FOREIGN SOIL’
Ukraine has asked North Korean troops to surrender rather than die for their dictator.
A message written in both Korean and Russian says: “We appeal to the fighters of the Korean People’s Army not to die senselessly on foreign soil.
“You should not repeat the fate of hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers who will never return home.
“Surrender now and Ukraine will shelter you, feed you and warm you.”
A video shared by Kyiv’s forces shows a PoW camp built to accommodate North Korean troops who choose to surrender.
It says: “The prisoners of war in the camp will be kept in large, warm and bright rooms with separate sleeping quarters.
“They will receive three meals a day, including meat, fresh vegetables and bread.”
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DESPERATE VLAD
Putin has now suffered over 600,000 casualties as Ukraine fights to valiantly defend itself.
The tyrant’s latest power move to try and wrestle back control of the territory has seen him lean on North Korea for additional men.
Officials have also detected signs that North Korea is relocating family members of soldiers chosen to be sent to Russia to special sites to isolate them.
World leaders say if North Korean troops are seen in Ukraine then it would be a clear sign of desperation from a paranoid Vlad.
Finland’s President Alexander Stubb told Reuters: “We’re just seeing how desperate Russia is.
“Its allies are not too many around this world.
“It relies on Iranian weapons, it relies on North Korean soldiers. How much worse can it get?”
It comes as the North Korean despot has also been supplying tens of thousands of containers of weapons to Russia for its illegal invasion.
Kim has sent 13,000 shipping containers carrying arms to Russia for the war over a two-year period, one South Korean minister said.
Ammunition supplies are critical for Russia to continue prosecuting its war and killing innocent Ukrainians.
In January, Russia used North Korean missiles to blitz Ukraine for the first time killing at least 50 people.
At the end of last month, small North Korean tanks, named Bulsae-4, were even spotted fighting in Ukraine.
North Korea has denied supplying the Kremlin with ballistic missiles and artillery shells.
But reports say Kim has even pledged to send 15,000 tunnellers to Ukraine to dig a Hamas-style underground front.
Russia is using “dark” ships with their GPS turned off so they can’t be tracked to ship some of the containers.
In return, Putin is said to be protecting his pal at the UN by vetoing bodies supposed to enforce the sanctions against North Korea.
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