Ukraine already fighting “global war” as N. Korea enters fray – expert

That’s according to Oleksandr Danylyuk with the Center for Defense Reforms, who penned an oped for RUSI, Ukrinform reports.

The Russo-Ukrainian war has ceased to be a regional conflict by definition as North Korea, which signed a strategic partnership agreement with Russia, has sided with Russia, deploying between 10,000 and 15,000 military personnel, the report reads.

The “Russia is desperate” assessment is false, the report argues, as Ukraine now faces two highly militarized nuclear powers, in one of which human life is not valued too much, and in the other – it is practically worthless.

North Korea’s 1.3M-strong armed forces serve as a great additional manpower source for Russia, an alternative to Russian conscripts who have proven not sufficiently motivated, surrendering en masse during the Ukrainian raid into Kursk region, the report notes.

Russia itself, the expert observes, is turning into North Korea. Since 2012, Russia has been implementing a national ‘besieged fortress’ strategy, according to which Putin’s regime is deliberately engaged in isolating Russians from the outside world, curtailing even the few weak elements of democracy, inciting anti-Western sentiment, militarizing society and building a system based on one-man leadership, which has involved a transition from the previous model of relatively mild authoritarianism known as ‘sovereign democracy’ to the Russian analogue of the North Korean Juche ideology.

Former assistant to the President of Russia, Vladislav Surkov, in a research entitled ‘Where Did the Chaos Go? Unpacking Stability’, published a few weeks before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, believes the current geopolitical situation in which there are a large number of completely independent states is anomalous, and that in the future, the world will return to an imperialist model where small states are controlled by large ones, which should include Russia.

Also, Vladimir Putin in his interview with Tucker Carlson indicated that the Russian regime explores a path, which can be called the ‘junior partner’ strategy. It involves joining an anti-U.S. player, China, and acting in the interests of its victory. The strategy is described in detail in an article by the deputy director of the Institute of Russian-Chinese Strategic Cooperation, Andrei Devyatov, entitled ‘The New Horde as a Key to Russia’s Victory in the Third World War’.

In his speech at a meeting with the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation in 2023, Putin stated that choosing vassal dependence on the Horde, as in the times of Alexander Nevsky, is the only way to protect Russia from the West, the report recalls.

While Western leaders and societies seem reluctant to recognize it, “a global war, the goal of which is to destroy the existing international system and build a new one, is already underway, and even the complete capture of Ukraine by Russia will not stop it”.

Putin’s statements that Russia has no interest west of Ukrainian borders are reminiscent of Hitler’s famous words before the invasion of Poland that France had nothing to fear, as Germany’s borders in the west were forever delineated by the fortifications of the German Western Wall.

Russia’s future geopolitical behavior is determined by its current militarization, the expert notes, pointing to 40% of the budget going towards financing the war military alliances being formed with the most toxic governments.

“A few hundred outdated Leopard 1s and a few dozen under-modernised F-16s will not be sufficient to give Ukraine fighting parity, let alone an advantage. If the West really does not want to shed the blood of its own soldiers in this war, it should hurry to arm Ukrainian soldiers while there are still some left,” the expert stresses.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, President Volodymyr Zelensky said 11,000 North Korean troops have already been deployed in Kursk region bordering Ukraine, stressing that amid the increase in their number, there is no increase in Ukraine partners’ reaction.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov on Tuesday confirmed reports that the Ukrainian military had the first combat engagement with North Korean forces.