Engineers said to be supporting missile launches and reports of North Koreans killed near Donetsk

North Korean military engineers have been deployed to help Russia target Ukraine with ballistic missiles, and North Koreans operating in occupied areas of Ukraine have already been killed, senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul said.

There are dozens of North Koreans behind Russian lines, in teams that “support launcher systems for KN-23 missiles”, a source in Ukraine told the Guardian.

Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, last year travelled to Russia for a summit with Vladimir Putin where the two men bolstered their deepening ties with a secret arms deal.

Pyongyang’s ammunition shipments were vital in allowing Russian forces to advance in a grinding war of attrition in eastern Ukraine this summer. But it appears increasingly clear that the agreement went beyond supplying materiel.

  • @Duamerthrax
    link
    English
    162 months ago

    There were reports of Russian soldiers in Ukraine not knowing what an “Automatic Toilet” was. They’re grabbing people from so far in the boonies, that they bring in buckets of water to flush their toilets. That also means that either Russian barracks don’t have toilets or they’re shipping their forces to the front lines without any training.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        252 months ago

        He means they only know how to shit in a hole in the ground. That kind of poverty tends to not go hand in hand with the top educational institutions.

        • @Duamerthrax
          link
          English
          8
          edit-2
          2 months ago

          From how understand it, they have toilets in the sticks, but they don’t automatically fill themselves. They have a bucket of water that they pour into the toilet to flush it. It’s also not so much that they don’t have automatic toilets, but that they didn’t even know they exist. The poor, wilderness communities that Putin is pulling from are that isolated from the rest of the word. The American equivalent would be the Appalachian people.

          Here’s a clip of Zelenskyy referencing the toilet situation.

            • @Duamerthrax
              link
              English
              42 months ago

              You know, there’s a hook worm epidemic in the southern US that’s effecting children’s mental development is being cause by a lack of proper waste management. Explains a lot of things about both communities.

                • @Duamerthrax
                  link
                  English
                  22 months ago

                  Well, yes, but in both cases, it’s manufactured poverty. It’s really not hard to make basic cesspit and keep it away from water sources. This is a solved problem.

                  • @dfecht
                    link
                    English
                    22 months ago

                    Sure, it’s a solved problem, but is it a profitable problem?