What better way for troops to acquire battle experience than to fight in actual battles. From Simplicius at simplicius76.substack.com:
Today Putin announced the complete liberation of the Kursk region:
[see link for video]
In reality, it seems the Kremlin has made a habit out of reporting slightly premature victories, as they famously did in Khrynki last year. Ukrainian troops have been driven back to nearly the border, but top map makers on both sides still maintain a tiny sliver of Kursk land held by dogged AFU units. To be fair, Gerasimov did indicate in the report that the last few Ukrainian stragglers hiding in abandoned sheds and woods near the border were being hunted down.
But the biggest ‘shock’ came when Gerasimov made official confirmation of the active participation of North Korean troops in the Kursk theater:
[see link for video]
And it wasn’t mere presence—Gerasimov reports they fought shoulder to shoulder with Russian troops. And now that the cat’s out of the bag, there are more details trickling out from Russian frontline journos who had previously been sworn to OPSEC about the DPRK forces.
The gas station with an economy has allies?!
So much for Moscow by spring, Beijing by summer.
CCP/PRC just seized a sand bar reef by the Philippines.
President Miriam is not happy.