PUTIN has claimed his troops constantly hear foreign languages on the Ukrainian front and warned that those fighting alongside kyiv will be “destroyed”.
Russia has long accused NATO of having troops on the ground in Ukraine.
They insist that their soldiers periodically intercept English and French voices over radio conversations in combat zones.
NATO has repeatedly denied this, saying it supports Ukraine only with weapons, training and intelligence, not manpower.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov doubled down on his claims on Tuesday.
He stated: “Our military listens to foreign speeches, they constantly hear foreign languages at the front.
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“So these foreigners are there, we are destroying them. Our army will continue to do its job.”
His fiery warning came after Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency alleged that France was preparing to deploy a 2,000-strong military contingent to Ukraine.
The claim was quickly dismissed by Western officials.
Peskov took the opportunity to lash out at kyiv, accusing Ukrainian officials of stalling peace talks and refusing to accept Moscow’s demands.
“Russia cannot assess the progress of the negotiations because Ukraine has suspended them,” he said.
Foreign volunteers have joined both sides since the start of the conflict: from Britons and Americans fighting for kyiv to Syrians and Chechens backing Russia.
But Moscow’s latest claim comes amid mounting evidence that North Korea has sent its troops into Putin’s war, swelling Russian ranks as the invasion drags into its brutal third year.
According to the intelligence services of Ukraine and South Korea, more than 10,000 North Korean soldiers have been deployed to the front in exchange for economic and military technological assistance.
Seoul’s spy agency estimates that around 2,000 North Korean soldiers have already been killed.
The shadowy partnership comes as Russia continues to hit Ukraine’s energy grid, launching new overnight drone attacks that damaged gas facilities in the Poltava region, according to Naftogaz, Ukraine’s state energy giant.
Moscow has relentlessly attacked Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during two winters of war, but this year it has shifted its attention to gas, aiming to cripple the country’s heating supplies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tried to reassure citizens, saying that kyiv had obtained funds to buy 70 percent of the gas it needs for the winter, and that the government would foot the rest of the bill.
His comments were aimed at calming fears that Russia’s attack could leave millions of people frozen in the dark.
Zelenskyy also revealed that Ukraine and its allies agreed to start working on a ceasefire plan “in the next week or 10 days.”
But hopes for peace were overshadowed by rising nuclear tensions after Russia tested a new nuclear-powered cruise missile, which Vladimir Putin said could bypass any existing defense system.
The launch provoked an immediate reaction from Washington. Former US President Donald Trump called the test “not appropriate” and insisted that Putin “should end the war.”
Meanwhile, on the battlefield, the Ukrainian army is strengthening its positions in the strategic eastern city of Pokrovsk after groups of Russian troops infiltrated the area.
kyiv said Moscow had renewed its efforts to capture the key logistics hub, sparking fierce fighting.
At the same time, Zelenskyy revealed that Ukraine’s long-range attacks on Russian refineries have reduced Moscow’s oil refining capacity by 20 percent, citing Western intelligence information.
“More than 90 percent of those deep strikes were carried out with Ukrainian-made long-range weapons,” he said, urging more financial aid from allies to keep up the pressure.
Oil exports remain the lifeline of Putin’s war machine, and new sanctions are now emerging.
Last week, Donald Trump announced new sanctions against Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil, which will come into effect on November 21.
Zelenskyy said Trump “will probably use this as a tool of pressure or dialogue with the Russians.”
As China and India remain Moscow’s biggest oil buyers, kyiv hopes to cut off that supply as well.
“India has definitely given every sign that it will reduce imports of energy resources,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he hopes Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea this week will lead to further reductions.
Meanwhile, a UN investigation found that Russia is using drones to hunt civilians near the front lines, intensifying fears that Moscow’s tactics are becoming even more ruthless.
It comes as KIM Jong-un broke ground on a new “sacred shrine” for the hundreds of North Korean soldiers who died fighting in Vladimir Putin’s bloody war in Ukraine.
The dictator inaugurated the Commemorative Museum of Combat Deeds, which, he said, “will pray for the immortality of the proud heroes” who “performed immortal feats in military operations abroad.”
Flanked by Russian diplomats and tearful families, Kim cradled the soldiers’ faces and vowed that his “brotherhood” with Moscow would advance without stopping.
The chilling ceremony was the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang’s sinister alliance with the Kremlin is tightening, even as Russia reels from new U.S. oil sanctions.
The tyrant hailed his fallen fighters as “true patriots,” boasting that North Korean troops spent a year in Russia’s Kursk region, where they “destroyed the diabolical neo-Nazi invaders with their unconditional spirit.”
After sending 15,000 troops to reinforce Putin’s front lines last year, at least 600 have been killed and thousands more wounded, according to South Korean estimates.
Many died in the same region where the exhausted Russian army has been calling for reinforcements.
The new monument in Pyongyang, complete with statues, murals and “bloody battle” scenes, will immortalize their sacrifice.
Kim called it “a sacred shrine dedicated to the immortality of true patriots.”
Russia’s ambassador to North Korea, Aleksandr Matsegora, stood stiffly next to Kim as he declared that ties between the two rogue states were “reaching an all-time peak.”
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Kim boasted that the “blood ties” between Moscow and Pyongyang were stronger than “the United States and its Western bloc.”
The exhibition marked another defiant display of unity between two pariah regimes, united in their shared war against the West.
