Russia is assembling a “coalition of criminals,” blasted Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Russia is gathering huge numbers of North Koreans to fight in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian military intelligence official told POLITICO.
“They are called the Buryat Battalion … there are some 3,000 North Koreans there,” the official said, when granted anonymity to candidly discuss the sensitive topic.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday said that Ukraine is now fighting against two states.
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The Kyiv Independent reported, citing an anonymous Western official, that Pyongyang has so far actually sent 10,000 soldiers to Russia to boost its war effort in Ukraine.
He is getting very desperate.
I view it as NK getting real world combat experience. It helps both countries out. This isn’t good for multiple reasons.
Only if they try more modern tactics. If they’re just being plugged in to Russian command it’s just more meat for the meat grinder. Which makes sense because Russians play book has usually been “overwhelm with warm bodies”
True enough. Though, Russia has adapted tactics in various domains since their initial invasion, e.g. their drone defensive/offensive tactics. Regardless, if NK is simply sending grunts to the frontline without their own senior officers and/or company commanders/sergeants, there won’t be much useful combat experience to take back home to their own military.
Right? NK is just selling bodies to be droned down at a later date. I can’t believe this has gone on so long while leading nations are hesitant to offer aid that can make more of an impact than an occasional stalemate.
Then again, I don’t know a whole lot about what is all going down as my countries news outlets are bought and paid for to a large extent.
NK really doesn’t have the economy to produce anything. They’d still lose.
If they decided to attack, yes, they’d lose badly, though they can easily cause severe damage to Seoul, as the city sits less than 30km away from the demilitarized zone and within range of several artillery pieces spread over the border.
I wonder what quality of soldier you get from N.Korea. Basically every man of fighting age (16-60???) is in the army from what I understand. So that would make the possible level hopeless to competent (maybe).
I doubt Kim has given Putin his “elite” troops.
The survivors may be elite once they make it out the other side tho. Maybe that’s the deal. It’s like money laundering, but with people
Does NK have that many spare soldiers to offer? Seems like every other week there’s more news of rampant starvation in NK, and it’s not a particularly large country to begin with. I’d think they would need all the bodies at home they can get. On the other hand maybe they’re just counting on the Russians to feed them.
Be skeptical of a lot of the news that purports to be coming out North Korea, a lot of it is from groups like the Moonies, and other ideologically and politically motivated propaganda.
I’m not saying this to imply that the DPRK is actually a worker’s paradise, there’s no starvation, no potemkin villages, or that yes, Kim Jong-il did play a round of golf and hit all holes in one.
My point is that for a country known as The Hermit Kingdom, and is extremely insular, secretive, and closed off, there’s a lot fewer credible sources who can actually report accurately on the specific events or acute conditions inside, then the many publications and their articles would have you believe.
