Boris Mabillard
special envoy to Kursk
Published on November 22, 2024 at 06:54. / Modified on November 22, 2024 at 07:06.
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Nearly 10,000 North Korean soldiers would be sent to reinforce the Russian army in the Kursk region, where kyiv's forces achieved a breakthrough last August.
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To avoid losses of its soldiers, the Ukrainian general staff is studying the possibilities of a withdrawal.
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In the negotiations that the cabinet of the future American president, Donald Trump, could launch, each territory gained will weigh heavily. Efforts are being redoubled on both sides.
Sitting in the darkness, under the tarpaulin of the stopped truck, half a dozen soldiers keep their eyes glued to their boots and the butts of their rifles as if hypnotized. They are returning from the Kursk oblast, in Russia, where last August Ukrainian forces achieved a formidable breakthrough. The small troop is waiting in the village of Pysarivka, about ten kilometers from Russia, for orders which are slow in coming: will they leave for a new mission or will they be able to stop for a few hours to sleep and eat, at the shelter, before returning there? Information collected by the Ukrainian secret services and their European and American counterparts announced the arrival of North Korean soldiers sent as reinforcements. On the front, everyone is talking about it: the North Koreans are already hard at work. But no one in the unit has seen them in the flesh. Nobody knows what these auxiliaries are worth either: poorly trained troops destined to serve as cannon fodder or well-equipped elite forces?
“That remains to be seen,” replies Leonid, the group's commander, who especially fears that these auxiliaries will increase the enemy's numerical superiority. Russian assaults have redoubled and threaten to break Ukrainian lines on Russian territory. The Kursk operation could end in a tactical withdrawal to spare the lives of the soldiers. A plan exists and preparations for this possible redeployment have already begun.
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