The Guardian’s Luke Harding is live now replying to your questions – from his new book on Trump and Putin to the state of the war in Ukraine, his explusion from Russia and his career as a foreign correspondent Ask a question: log in or sign up here Stakeman asks: Do you think the huge influx of North Korean soldiers (circa 50k?) will make a big difference on the frontline boundary battles given that we hear Ukraine drones are picking them off? Luke: Yes. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says North Korea is sending another 50,000 troops, in addition to the 12,000 who took part in the 2024-2025 battle for Russia’s western Kursk region. Their arrival will enable the Kremlin to send additional forces to the eastern Donbas, Putin’s main target, where intense battles continue. Over the past year and a half North Korean soldiers have experienced modern warfare. They have learned about surveillance and kamikaze drones, which saturate the frontline. This hard-won knowledge could be employed in a future peninsula conflict with South Korea. I was stopped at Moscow airport in 2011 and deported from the country. In 2022 Russia’s foreign ministry put me on a list of banned individuals (which also includes several of my colleagues from the Guardian.) There’s no prospect of my returning to Russia while Vladimir Putin’s regime remains in power, and his war in Ukraine continues. Nor would I want to. But Putin isn’t eternal and at some point Russia may reckon with his decades of delusion and misrule. One fantasy: I return to Moscow as an old man and knock on the door of the Lubyanka, the FSB and KGB’s HQ. I would like to see the FSB’s secret dossier on me and to write a book in the style of Timothy Garton Ash’s marvellous memoir The File. Continue reading...