Vladimir Putin is suffering grievous manpower losses as a result of his illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine. He has lost around 200,000 killed, double that number wounded, and at least 500,000 young men fleeing the Russian Federation to avoid the draft: a butcher’s bill of over a million.
As a result, he is turning to international sources of additional manpower – Chechens, Cubans, and, most recently and dramatically, North Koreans. At least 10,000 Korean foot soldiers are headed to the battlefields of Ukraine to fight and die in a cause that must be utterly bewildering for them. They will be strangers in a strange land indeed, and you can bet Kim Jung Un is holding their families hostage to prevent desertions. Many North Korean soldiers will die and some will desert despite the consequences, but their military impact will likely be insignificant.