As the Russian and US leader prepared for their so called Ukraine peace deal, Vladimir Putin was secretly signing another deal with the North Korean despot to recuit another 6,000 troops and tanks
Russian President Vladimir Putin did a deal with North Korean despot Kim Jong-Un to recruit another 6,000 troops from the rogue state as he prepared for today’s Alaska meeting. Ukrainian intelligence believes Kim agreed to sell Putin another 100 tanks and even more armoured personnel carriers to bolster his assault on the frontline.
Intelligence estimates calculate that a staggering 40% of ammunition being fired at Ukrainian troops by North Korean soldiers and a huge force of Russians comes from Pyongyang. News of Putin’s dastardly deal, adding to the 14,000 North Korean troops he has already sent into ferocious attacks on Ukrainian forces comes as another Russian bomber crashed.
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The deadly SU-30M fighter bomber was brought down in the Black Sea, although it is not yet known if it had been targeted whilst on a mission or was sabotaged. Wreckage of the downed £50m warplane has been found by Russian search and rescue teams but the pilots have not yet been found as battles rage on the frontline. It comes after Putin warned of nuclear war.
The location of the wreckage was found near Ukraine ’s ‘Snake Island’ which was recaptured by Kyiv’s special forces after the initial February 2022 Russian full-scale invasion.
And ahead of the Anchorage summit a major explosion struck a Russian weapons and ammunition plant – killing and injuring dozens of workers. It went off in the gunpowder workshop at the Elastik plant in Ryazan. Initial reports said five people were killed, 20 injured and more than 100 people were evacuated from the burning plant.
A witness at the location, in the western Russian city, said: “The warehouse exploded and the missiles flew all around.” The Ryazan Incidents Telegram channel said: “Victims were sent to the district hospital. All emergency services are working at the scene.”
Just days ago Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency’s elite ‘A branch’ special forces unit targeted four Russian bombers inside Russia, destroying one and damaging three. As President Donald Trump prepared to hold a summit with Putin, Russian forces this week breached Ukrainian lines, infiltrating in large numbers along the frontline.
But experts say Russia’s advances on the eastern front are limited in strategic wins and Putin wants to give the impression Kyiv is doing badly in the war to give him leverage. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Putin wants Ukraine to withdraw from the remaining 30% of the Donetsk region that Kyiv still controls as part of a ceasefire deal.
The Ukrainian leader has categorically rejected that suggestion. After years of fighting, Russia still does not fully control all of the Donetsk region, which it illegally annexed in 2022, along with the Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.
Russian troops are concentrating on Pokrovsk – a key highway and rail junction that once was home to about 60,000 and now is partially encircled. The forces found a gap east of the coal-mining town of Dobropillia, and have advanced six miles. But it is thought Ukrainian forces are trying to outflank them and Russia is taking huge casualties.
Few expect Trump to be able to persuade Putin to give a solid guarantee towards peace as both men know there is going to be a further meeting, perhaps with Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr there. It is also believed European leaders including British PM Keir Starmer may be invited.