President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that it was Russia’s business whether or not it decided to use North Korean troops and said that if Ukraine wanted to join NATO then Moscow could do what it wanted to ensure its own security.
The United States said on Wednesday that it had seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that the West is casting as a significant escalation of the Ukraine war.
Ukraine’s military intelligence service said that the first North Korean units trained in Russia had been deployed in the Kursk region, a Russian border area where Ukrainian forces took a chunk of Russian land in August.
NATO maintains that it is a defensive alliance. If NATO starts adding countries Russia is currently at war with, it becomes an offensive alliance.
That being said, why wasn’t Ukraine added earlier?
I don’t think so. Ukraine is in a defensive war. Actively joining their side doesn’t turn it into an offensive one. The difference between offensive and defensive conflicts is the goal: In an offensive, you want to gain something. In a defence, it is about keeping what you have. Just because NATO would come to their aid, Ukraine wouldn’t want to conquer Russia.
Multiple reasons probably:
Man, to drop decorum, I don’t give a shit about the Russians and angering them. I’m just trying not to give Russia a pretext to do something really fucking stupid. Yes, they can perform false flag operations for their own pretext.
Joining an active war without a prior alliance is an escalation. To keep NATO defensive and not to bring them into an active war, there should be a different agreement signed.
Hell, NK joining the war is an escalation by both NK and Russia. Does this justify NATO adding Ukraine just for them to immediately invoke article 5? I don’t think so.
Regardless of ethics and politicking though, someone HAS to be done to show Russia that it can’t just arbitrarily annex parts of other countries.
Here’s the thing, if Ukraine just invaded Kursk, unprompted, and Russia used North Korean troops to push them back into Ukraine, it would be problematic because of the sanctions against North Korea, but it would not be an escalation, it would merely be Russia’s allies helping it to defend itself.
The reality though, because Russia is in Ukraine, is that those troops, even if they’re only deployed to Kursk, are done so to free up more Russian troops to invade Ukraine. Which makes it a massive escalation of the invasion of Ukraine no matter what.
NATO troops (or planes if we were to impose a no fly zone), would, however, still be purely defensive. Hell, ask Ukraine to give up Kursk for direct Nato support and they would in a second.
Russia can stop being at war at any second, if it chooses to
Right, but if chooses too Ukraine will likely join NATO and Russia ends up with another NATO country against its land border.
The only reason they would withdraw is if they don’t have enough troops - which they are supplementing with North Korean troops. It’s against Russia’s geopolitical interest.
That and Putin is a crazy guy doing crazy things. Putin may not stop even if it IS in his best interests to do so
if it annexes Ukraine it it has multiple new NATO countries at its land border.
The idea of this strategic depth is, ultimately, an excuse. Poland didn’t join NATO because it wanted to be a war torn wreck protecting Germany from suffering if Russia tries to invade.
The NATO countries bordering Russia aren’t disposable. Bordering super powers is actually fine, if you’re not a psycopath
It’s also fine if that superpower isn’t a psychopath.
Did you have one in mind? Or are the words synonymous?
You know what? That’s actually a really good take
Invading Ukraine caused 2 more countries on their border to join nato.
I mean, yes, Putin should have never begun the war to begin with. Those countries aren’t going to leave NATO if Russia leaves Ukraine today.
No, he’s just making literally all of Eastern Europe more united and bloodthirsty to revenge themselves on past Russian aggression.
The beauty of having Russia as an enemy is that everybody hates them and wants to see them suffer, so, it’s easy to get everyone in line to brutalize them without remorse.
It’s like when everyone in WW2 turned on the Nazis, and suddenly there was 0 mercy or chance for surrender, it was rip and tear until it was done.
So many eastern Europeans remember, and now that Russia looks so pathetically weak and broken, they’re seeing their opportunity to drag every ounce of pain and blood from them.
Honestly, I do feel sorry for Russians. But they brought this on themselves.
Ah, just like Trump united most of the world against him.
Yeah, actually, he did help, as did W.
But nothing near like what Russia did to Eastern Europe. Even Afghanistan didn’t have a problem with us compared to the soviets.
And unlike Russia, we’re not pathetically weak and being shown as so by getting our shit pushed in by a much weaker neighbor.
See, Russians are paranoid that if they’re ever not perceived as strong, everyone will come for them. Ukraine broke the illusion.
It’s like Finland in the Winter War, Hitler saw how pathetic Russia was, and invaded. It only worked out because the allies supplied the hell out of them, and even then it was close. China won’t be as stupid.