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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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.