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submitted 12 hours ago by Hubi@feddit.org to c/world@lemmy.world

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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[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world 1 points 24 seconds ago

If Putin does something stupid the elicits a direct response from the U.S., he will regret going all-in on this. We could use a good excuse to make the NK problem go away.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 8 points 1 hour ago

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!

[-] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 33 minutes ago

With the current attrition rate of Russian forces, these 3K troops will likely be expended in ~2.3 days..

[-] Valmond@lemmy.world 12 points 2 hours ago

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.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 3 points 27 minutes ago

I mean you list all of that and ignore the biggest elephant in the room. 40% GDP spent on the war.

[-] blackn1ght@feddit.uk 4 points 49 minutes ago

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.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 2 points 22 minutes ago

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.

[-] realitista@lemm.ee 4 points 1 hour ago

Dictatorships can take a lot of abuse before falling apart. Look at North Korea. People are starving and still that fuckers in power.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 1 points 24 minutes ago

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.

[-] aggelalex@lemmy.world 18 points 2 hours ago

What a great opportunity for those north Koreans to defect to Europe

[-] Kbobabob@lemmy.world 38 points 7 hours ago

Lmao, I just saw an article on here about NK soldiers abandoning the front lines. That didn't last long

[-] WanderingVentra@lemm.ee 11 points 4 hours ago

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.

[-] Mubelotix@jlai.lu 9 points 3 hours ago

Because someone's watching you with a gun to your head. Deserting is hard

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 hour ago

But also you're holding a gun.

[-] Maalus@lemmy.world 2 points 18 minutes ago

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.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 34 points 10 hours ago

Ukraine's about to get a lot of defectors...

[-] sqibkw@lemmy.world 19 points 4 hours ago

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.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago

There's a pretty big difference between construction work and human wave tactics in a warzone. Different levels of motivation to defect.

[-] ammonium@lemmy.world 6 points 46 minutes ago

And different opportunities, going MIA on a construction site is suspicious, but during war? Who can tell whether they defected or died?

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 71 points 11 hours ago

Ok, it's only fair if Poland gets to join too.

[-] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 21 points 10 hours ago

Better give Poland some nukes for parity

[-] Montagge@lemmy.zip 37 points 9 hours ago

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.

[-] Cethin@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 hour ago

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.)

[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 2 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago)

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.

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.

[-] Cornelius_Wangenheim@lemmy.world 5 points 3 hours ago

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.

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 7 points 7 hours ago

Yup. Going to hell in a hand basket.

[-] camr_on@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago

Send the Poles, they're itching for it

[-] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 25 points 11 hours ago

Hopefully this isn't the stsrt of turning this into a larger conflict that spills into other countries.

[-] Matriks404@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Wait for US fighting Iran and these two wars merging.

[-] whostosay@lemmy.world 8 points 6 hours ago

This is exactly that

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 14 points 10 hours ago

I wonder how many of them are going to just defect?

[-] harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 10 hours ago

So far 18 of the advance party. Unverified by Russia and North Korea though.

[-] carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago
this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2024
196 points (96.7% liked)

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