US Provides Proof that North Korean Troops are on the Ground in Ukraine

Gotcha! While the claim is ridiculous, the United States continues to lead the charge in pushing this nonsense. One of the most outspoken is US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin:

North Korea’s deployment to Russia to aid its war against Ukraine has the potential to lengthen the already 2-1/2-year old conflict and draw in others, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.

Some 10,000 North Korean forces have already been deployed to eastern Russia, wearing Russian uniforms and carrying Russian equipment, Austin said, in what he added increasingly looked like a deployment to support Russia’s combat operations in the Kursk region, near the border with Ukraine. . . .

The United States has said the North Korean deployment could be further evidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin was having trouble filling military ranks after more than 600,000 casualties so far, according to U.S. estimates.

Austin noted he was already seeking to replenish his arms inventories by turning to North Korea and Iran.

“We know that Putin has gone tin-cupping to get weapons from (North Korea) and Iran. Turning to a pariah state like North Korea just underscores how much trouble he is in,” the defense secretary said.

He and Kim both called on North Korea to withdraw its forces. But it was unclear whether there were any steps Washington or its allies could take to prevent Pyongyang from joining the war.

I will be blunt. Lloyd Austin is either a witting liar or a man devoid of critical thinking skills. If the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are presenting “intelligence” that Russia has suffered catastrophic casualties and is in desperate need of 10,000 Korean soldiers, then we have a case of intelligence malpractice and a gullible Secretary of Defense. Russia has not suffered crippling casualties. It is simply not true. Russia is advancing through Ukrainian lines all across the 900-mile front and Ukraine cannot stop them. Big Serge, after a noticeable absence of commenting on the tactical situation in Ukraine, published an important SubStack piece that addresses what is happening on the ground:

The Ukrainians are now defending a series of partially enveloped downhill positions, with the Vovcha River and reservoir acting as the hinge between them. On the northern bank, Ukrainian forces are quickly being compressed against the reservoir in a severe salient (particularly after the loss of Girnyk in the final week of October). Meanwhile, the Russians have forced multiple breaches on the southern line, reaching the towns of Shakhtarske and Bogoyavlenka. This advance is particularly important due to the orientation of Ukrainian defensive emplacements in this area. Most of the Ukrainian trench lines and strongpoints are arranged to defend against an advance from the south (that is, they run on an east-west orientation), particularly on the axis north of Velya Novosilka. What this means, in essence, is that the capture of Ugledar and the advance to Shakhtarske have outflanked the best Ukrainian positions in the southeast.

It is likely that the coming weeks will see Russian momentum continue, parsing through the thin Ukrainian defenses on the southern line while simultaniously advancing down the ridgeline from the Selydove-Novodmytrivka axis towards Andriivka, which forms the center of gravity pulling in both Russian pincers. Ukraine is facing the loss of the entire southeastern corner of the front, including Kurakhove, in the coming months.

The current trajectory of the Russian advance suggests that by the end of 2024, they will be on the verge of completely wrapping up the southeastern sector of the front, pushing the frontline out in a wide arc running from Andriivka to Toretsk. This would put Russia in control of some 70% of Donetsk Oblast, and set the stage for the next phase of operations which will push for Pokrovsk and begin a Russian advance eastward along the H15 highway, which connects Donetsk and Zaporozhia.

The methodology of the Russian advance has furthermore upset Ukraine’s calculations around attrition, and there is little evidence that the Russian offensive is unsustainable. Russia has increasingly turned to smaller units to probe Ukrainian positions, followed by heavy bombardment with guided glide bombs and artillery before assaulting. The use of small probing units (often 5 to 7 men) followed by the physical destruction of Ukrainian positions limits Russian casualties. Meanwhile, the constant presence of Orlan drones (now flying unmolested due to the severe shortage of Ukrainian air defense) gives the Russians unimpeded ISR, and increasing availability of ever larger and longer-range glide bombs has made the reduction of Ukrainian hard points much easier.

The shifting tactical-technical nexus of the Russian offensive has scuttled Ukrainian hopes of a winning attrition calculus. Western officials estimate that the Russian Army continues to intake some 30,000 new recruits per month, which is far more than they need to replenish losses. With Mediazona counting some 23,000 Russian KIA thus far in 2024, Russian margins on manpower are highly sustainable. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s pipeline for manpower is becoming ever thinner: even after passing a new mobilization law in May, their pool of replacements in training has fallen by more than 40%, and they currently have just 20,000 new personnel in training. The lack of replacements and rotations has left frontline units exhausted in both material terms and in their psychological state, with desertions and insubordination increasing. Ukrainian attempts to redouble their mobilization program have had mixed results, and have inadvertently increased casualties by prompting Ukrainian men to risk drowning to escape Ukraine.

Russia is not standing still waiting to see how things work out. It continues to improvise and deploy new combat systems that are both effective and deadly. Check out the vehicle drone in the following video — it is an armored car bomb.

In the following video you can compare and contrast the quality of Ukrainian troops versus Russian soldiers. The Ukrainians drive a tank into a gap in a dragons’ teeth defense and then scram. What do the Russians do? While taking fire, they rush the tank, get in, and then use it as a battering ram to open a wider gap in the defensive line so that Russian tanks can get through.

The North Korean meme, in my opinion, is a CIA created narrative designed to distract world attention from the debacle unfolding in Ukraine and create a pretext for bringing NATO troops into the fray. It is an insane and desperate ploy. I suspect Austin and the rest of the Biden team are hoping that by pushing the North Korean story Ukraine can hang on until a new President is inaugurated. When Ukraine finally collapses, they can blame it on Biden’s successor.