A battalion of 3,000 North Korean soldiers will shortly join Russian troops in fighting Ukraine, marking Pyongyang’s full entry into the war.
Intelligence sources said the unit has been secretly training in Russia’s Far East ahead of deployment as part of a Russian airborne regiment.
“They are called the Buryat Battalion,” a senior Ukrainian military source told Politico. Buryatia is a remote region of Russia bordering Mongolia that the Kremlin has targeted heavily for military recruitment.
The Kyiv Independent quoted another Western intelligence source claiming that North Korea had sent 10,000 soldiers to join the Russian army.
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Ok, it’s only fair if Poland gets to join too.
Better give Poland some nukes for parity
If the invasion of Ukraine hasn’t taught everyone that the only way to not get invaded is to have nukes I don’t know what will.
Seriously - I’m genuinely baffled at the complete geopolitical ineptitude that occurred in 2014. It was a categorical abrogation of the Budapest Memorandum, which guaranteed Ukrainian territorial integrity and sovereignty in exchange for their surrender of old Soviet nukes based in their territory.
Nobody is going to make a deal like that going forward. The nuclear non-proliferation movement is entirely dead. Nukes are, categorically, the absolute final word in guaranteeing a country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. There is no substitute. Genuinely, the complete and total lack of meaningful action in the defense of Ukraine was the most apocalyptically stupid geopolitical move that Obama and Merkel made during their stints as leaders of the western world.
Yup. Going to hell in a hand basket.
I hate that you’re right.
Nah, it was second behind the invasion of Iraq and the forever war in Afghanistan. The US’s unwillingness to react was in large part because it had been weakened by a decade of idiotic wars in the Middle East. Europe has no excuse though.
We invaded Iraq ~5 years before Obama was elected…
Honestly, no it’s also done the opposite. Ukraine has passed so many of Russia’s “red lines” that it shows nukes are useless too. The only time a nuke is useful is when you’ve already lost. If you use one then you get a lot of other groups attacking you, and potentially you get nuked yourself. You can’t actually really use one in defence.
The only way to not be invaded is to be stronger than your potential opponents. Si vis pacem, para bellum. (If you want peace, prepare for war.)
It hasn’t done the opposite. It has slowed response from the US and other countries significantly. For some things the US still doesn’t want to give Ukraine permission. Sure, Poland was giving tanks almost immediately after the war started, showing the hole in logic. But a lot of other countries went for “non leathal aid” like body armor, helmets. They only sent more after a year or so. Truth is, if Russians got Kiev and got Ukraine to capitulate after like 6 months, they’d only gain on the landgrab, with no consequences other than sanctions (which we see how they don’t really have the impact they should have and are skirted constantly). Decade or two in the future? Relations would probably be strained still, but returning to normal.
Appeasement is sadly the way of the world. That’s why Hitler, Stalin and now Putin were so successful.
Russia has some odd game theory incentives because their nukes probably haven’t been well maintained. Now, the rest of the world has to assume they work. The consequences of being wrong about that are too great. However, if Russia actually launched a nuke and it fizzles, that’s a pretty good indication that their nukes don’t work in general. It’s therefore in Russia’s best interest to keep pretending that it will launch a nuke, but never do it because that would remove all doubt.
And then they’re fucked. With the nuclear taboo broken–fizzle or not–nobody will complain when NATO gets directly involved in conventional ways.
good point. Loading up ukraine with nukes would have created a serious problem for russia. The problem is it would have given Ukraine independence from the US as well.
Send the Poles, they’re itching for it
Hey, in that case let’s leave some room for South Korea to join in liberating Ukraine too!
Let the war crimes roll.
Wut?
Any North Korean soldiers captured should be held prisoner in some Scandinavian prison and fed nothing but the most decadent and tasty foods. Then when the war is over send them back to NK fatter than Kim Jon Un. That would be a real power play.
You can’t serve Scandinavian food to prisonners it is forbidden by the Geneva convention.
If meatballs and mashed potatoes with lingonberry sauce are against the Geneva convention it’s probably time we had on Oslo convention.
Smorgasbord all day every day would be Tortute!
Because it causes Stockholm syndrome?
I was kind of on board with that idea, but now i’m100% on board
You’re thinking of Scandinavian regional delicacies and certain seasonal special dishes, none of which I’ve ever had the misfortune of smelling, and serving those to prisoners does sound pretty inhumane. All Scandinavian food outside of those that I’ve tried or heard of tasted or sounded delicious.
There’s more to Scandinavian food than lutefisk, y’know.
Married into a Scandinavian family. Scandinavian baked goods are amazing.
Lmao, I just saw an article on here about NK soldiers abandoning the front lines. That didn’t last long
Why fight die for some other country’s pointless war? If I was there, I’d leave, too.
I’d also encourage any US troops who are sent off to fight for Israel in the future to do the same lol.
Because someone’s watching you with a gun to your head. Deserting is hard
But also you’re holding a gun.
So your idea is to heroically kill a blocking batallion by yourself by turning around. So now there are Ukrainians wanting to kill you in the rear, and Russians wanting to kill you in the front. Said Russians also have a firepower advantage over you in the form of artillery that they can throw at deserters too. They have air support, reserves and military police that can quash any deserters.
Unless half the army walks with you, you having a gun doesn’t mean shit.
No, the grunts should just kill their officers and surrender to Ukraine ideally. They could go back towards Russia if they wanted to take that risk, because it’s not an impenetrable wall like you’re implying. It’s still a risk though. Probably better odds than fighting though if they don’t agree with the war.
This is very naive. Deserting cucks you over. If the world followed your logic we’d have world peace 500 years ago.
It’s not naive. I’ve served in the military. You don’t constantly have a massive army behind you telling you to push forward. You’re sent out in squads. Patriotism and brotherhood is how this has always been overcome, because war is scary and hard. I don’t see the people of NK feeling much of either if they aren’t taken care of and are finding out how much they were lied to.
It isn’t naive, there’s just a lot of reasons why it isn’t done. Most people have families back home, for example, and they’ll face consequences if you do this. It does happen though. It’s rare, but it’s possible.
In any other situation I would agree with you, but are you confident that deserting the Russian army fucks you over more than living in North Korea does? Because I’m not really sure.
Because your family back home will be in for it.
Ah but Russia isn’t keeping track of its own losses anyway, easy to slip away and they assume you’re dead.
Ukraine’s about to get a lot of defectors…
Unfortunately many North Koreans already leave the country to work as slaves for construction companies, factories, etc (including in Europe). Generally they only allow people out who have families back home to be tortured/killed in case they defect.
They will probably get some, but less than you might expect.
There’s a pretty big difference between construction work and human wave tactics in a warzone. Different levels of motivation to defect.
And different opportunities, going MIA on a construction site is suspicious, but during war? Who can tell whether they defected or died?
What Russia likes about North Korean Soldiers in Ukraine: Manpower!
What North Korea likes about North Korean Soldiers in Ukraine: Money!
What North Korean Soldiers like about North Korean Soldiers in Ukraine: Freedom!
Its going well!
I mean why wouldn’t they?
Koreans have no beef with Ukraine. They’re fighting in a war for a paycheck.
But they’re probably seeing wartorn Ukraine, with bombed out buildings and roads, and going, “Well shit this place looks better than home” and leaving.
Fighting in war for paycheck
Kim doesn’t operate that way, he’s got of a ‘don’t die or I’ll kill your family and put the relatives in jail’ energy
Hopefully this isn’t the stsrt of turning this into a larger conflict that spills into other countries.
This is exactly that
Wait for US fighting Iran and these two wars merging.
Both are already invovled in supplying weapons to both wars.
The great Russian army. The great russian army with the best weapons and tanks and soldiers.
What a paper tiger.
BTW it’s rumored that they are running out of both tanks and bmps. If trump doesn’t win (if he does, it will just take longer) the whole russia will collapse like the soviet union did in 1991. The ruble is already in free fall, inflation at 20%, the economy is overheating and fewer and fewer young people left to work or be killed.
I just hope it crumbles as soon as possible but I guess this insane war has to drag on for some 6 months to a year.
I mean you list all of that and ignore the biggest elephant in the room. 40% GDP spent on the war.
Or more.
Just to be clear, the war economy will hasten the downfall of Russia (they no longer publish inflation numbers, rumours are they are way over 20% maybe even at 40%. The central bank is already lending at 19% which is crazy) but it won’t help much with tanks and btrs, as the vast majority of the “new” ones are refurbished ones pulled out from long time storage, and even the “bad” ones are drying up, it’s impossible to know but it could be the end of both tanks & btrs this month or next month or so.
Russia builds just a handfull (less than 10) every month, they almost lose that many every day.
BTW it’s rumored that they are running out of both tanks and bmps.
I feel like people have been saying this for about 2 years. We should believe it when we see it.
We do see it lol. There are people who get satellite photos of tankyards in Russia. They pay Google to take a new photo over a specific base, count the tanks, armored vehicles and trucks, and make a youtube video about it. Russia is losing an enormous amounts of tanks. They can’t retrofit enough of the old stock to keep up with the losses, let alone produce new tanks.
Look Up covert cabal on YouTube. He works together with a guy called himarsed to painstakingly count tanks, bumps and other stuff on commercial satellite imagery and regularly posts updates on the Russian arsenals. And they are pretty empty now
Link for those curious: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SFT7j0sYElM
Dictatorships can take a lot of abuse before falling apart. Look at North Korea. People are starving and still that fuckers in power.
Dictatorships only stand because of the military. The military which is currently being slaughtered en masse in a war they didn’t need. We are one week “where decades happen” away from Russia colapsing. Shit like Prigozin, like Kadyrov launching a blood feud, etc.
Predictions of Russia’s collapse are like predictions that Putin’s health is about to fail: a dime a dozen on the Internet for years now and nothing ever comes of them.
That’s true, however it become clearer and clearer that some serious damage is happening to Russia and Putin. I don’t dare to make any predictions, but Putin is in a very uncomfortable position right now.
And yet shit like Prigozin happens. The fall of the Soviet Union was also sudden.
As long as they can find soldiers and equipment somewhere and the economy doesn’t completely collapse, they can keep going. It will get harder every year but I think it could still go on for years more.
With the current attrition rate of Russian forces, these 3K troops will likely be expended in ~2.3 days…
What a great opportunity for those north Koreans to defect to Europe
Soooo… is it a world war yet?
World special military operation
No, but getting there.
No, but the anthems are playing and the players are doing a warm up.
Captain Blackadder : You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two superblocs developed: us, the French and the Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other’s deterrent. That way there could never be a war.
Private Baldrick : But, this is a sort of a war, isn’t it, sir?
Captain Blackadder : Yes, that’s right. You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan.
Private Baldrick : What was that, sir?
Captain Blackadder : It was bollocks.
World scuffle
Concepts of a world war.
Don’t worry, it will only last 3 days
You can tell Russia’s desperate because they’ve got the North Koreans involved.
I wonder how many of them are going to just defect?
So far 18 of the advance party. Unverified by Russia and North Korea though.
Translation: Putin needs more people for the meat grinder without making his people madder at him.
Man this three day special military operation has kind of gotten out of hand.
