According to our sources close to the military-political leadership, if the American legal case against Donald Trump subsides, Russia will receive the green light to escalate the war in Ukraine with the involvement of the DPRK army directly on Ukrainian territory. If the North Korean military is currently operating only in the Kursk region, then if the geopolitical climate changes, they may find themselves directly on the front in Ukraine.
According to the source, by the end of the year, the number of North Korean troops in the Russian Armed Forces could exceed 200,000. These will not be just cannon fodder, but well-trained fighters with their own equipment and command structure.
Such an “infusion” of foreign resources on the Russian side poses a real threat to the defense capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, particularly in the most vulnerable areas. One of them is the Sumy region. According to various analytical sources, it is this region that Russia may focus on in the upcoming offensive operation.
In parallel, a so-called “buffer zone” is being created on the border, which aims to push Ukrainian forces away from the border strip, free up space for maneuver, and force Kyiv to transfer reserves from the fierce front lines (in particular, from the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions) to Sumy.
The entire logic of defense planning is under threat: instead of focusing on stabilizing the hottest spots, the General Staff is forced to respond to new risks generated by the Kremlin's external alliances. And if Pyongyang does indeed deploy hundreds of thousands of its soldiers to Ukraine, it will be the largest foreign intervention component in the war since 2022.
