"Tsar Botox" is rapidly turning into the latter-day version of "Tsar Nicky" each day this senseless fratricide persists. He had eight full years to prepare adequately for this eventuality, yet failed to do so as was so painfully evident during the first few days of this war--er,"Special Military Operation". An operation so "special" in that it has exposed to the entire world the depth of decrepitude and rot the Russian armed forces now find themselves 30+ years since the dissolution of the vaunted Soviet military.
I have found that when I answer questions on other substacks I get new subscribers. I do not charge but if I did I could pay for one subscription for every three I received. That would be like a 33% tax to substack authors. Starting such a campaign could be nice and those who are very successful could make a point of taking on full paid subscriptions for all the other substacks they read.
I have 40 something subscribers so one percent would not get me a single paid subscriber and make my occasional utterances unprofitable.
Ukraine lies about specifics and is proven wrong constantly, they may be lying this time as well.
That said, those could very well bek Koreans getting ready to go kick some NATO ass, we shall see. Ukrainian Intel wouldn't be able to know for sure where they are being deployed, but Kursk seems a good guess. For reason one, it's Russia proper so purely defensive. Reason two, this is where the latest NATO tech is along with plenty of foreign mercs so Putin and Kim would love to give them a little surprise.
I actually could see this being a point of honor and Putin not being abke to refuse Kim this opportunity to strike at the Evil Empire. I pity those NATO mercs for sure, Kim would only send his very best to help Older Brother. Though unfortunately Zelensky will probably swap them out for Russian speaking territorial defense cannon fodder at the last minute; it is his favorite way of ethnically cleansing his country while preserving the seasoned veterans.
This is a terrible sign for Ukraine as it will give Russia a chance to develop new tactics and methods, just as they did with Wagner. Now those methods are part of standard Russian training as veteran knowledge from Bhakmut was distributed to the entire army (Russia expects every front-line soldier to be able to storm positions). It's a weakness and a strength of the RAF that they heavily standardize everything, so having non-official units to play with has helped them enormously.
Btw, those are definitely Koreans you can tell by their movements they have drilled to the utmost. The way the guy picks up the pen at the end like it's a parade flag is a 100% tell these aren't reindeer farmers off the conscription bus.
This is not to justify Putin's unforgivable non-mobilization, but there might be two good reasons for taking in N.Korean soldiers: a) some proportion of proud Russians might find that needing to be defended by foreigners is humiliating to a point where they'd make up their minds to enlist themselves, and b) it might have been cocky, loudmouthed Kim himself who has insisted Putin let him send N.K. troops join the battle, believing that way his country is fighting capitalism.
Btw, I'm not acquainted with the precise terms of the RF-NK defense agreement, but if a formal state of war is required for article 4 to kick in, such condition would not be met at this moment, for Russia is presently "not at war" with any other nation.
Same as it ever was with this not-war. I guess the North Koreans will be fed piecemeal into Kursk since Tsar Botox seems to prefer that strategy.
"Tsar Botox" is rapidly turning into the latter-day version of "Tsar Nicky" each day this senseless fratricide persists. He had eight full years to prepare adequately for this eventuality, yet failed to do so as was so painfully evident during the first few days of this war--er,"Special Military Operation". An operation so "special" in that it has exposed to the entire world the depth of decrepitude and rot the Russian armed forces now find themselves 30+ years since the dissolution of the vaunted Soviet military.
I have found that when I answer questions on other substacks I get new subscribers. I do not charge but if I did I could pay for one subscription for every three I received. That would be like a 33% tax to substack authors. Starting such a campaign could be nice and those who are very successful could make a point of taking on full paid subscriptions for all the other substacks they read.
I have 40 something subscribers so one percent would not get me a single paid subscriber and make my occasional utterances unprofitable.
Ukraine lies about specifics and is proven wrong constantly, they may be lying this time as well.
That said, those could very well bek Koreans getting ready to go kick some NATO ass, we shall see. Ukrainian Intel wouldn't be able to know for sure where they are being deployed, but Kursk seems a good guess. For reason one, it's Russia proper so purely defensive. Reason two, this is where the latest NATO tech is along with plenty of foreign mercs so Putin and Kim would love to give them a little surprise.
I actually could see this being a point of honor and Putin not being abke to refuse Kim this opportunity to strike at the Evil Empire. I pity those NATO mercs for sure, Kim would only send his very best to help Older Brother. Though unfortunately Zelensky will probably swap them out for Russian speaking territorial defense cannon fodder at the last minute; it is his favorite way of ethnically cleansing his country while preserving the seasoned veterans.
This is a terrible sign for Ukraine as it will give Russia a chance to develop new tactics and methods, just as they did with Wagner. Now those methods are part of standard Russian training as veteran knowledge from Bhakmut was distributed to the entire army (Russia expects every front-line soldier to be able to storm positions). It's a weakness and a strength of the RAF that they heavily standardize everything, so having non-official units to play with has helped them enormously.
Btw, those are definitely Koreans you can tell by their movements they have drilled to the utmost. The way the guy picks up the pen at the end like it's a parade flag is a 100% tell these aren't reindeer farmers off the conscription bus.
This is not to justify Putin's unforgivable non-mobilization, but there might be two good reasons for taking in N.Korean soldiers: a) some proportion of proud Russians might find that needing to be defended by foreigners is humiliating to a point where they'd make up their minds to enlist themselves, and b) it might have been cocky, loudmouthed Kim himself who has insisted Putin let him send N.K. troops join the battle, believing that way his country is fighting capitalism.
Btw, I'm not acquainted with the precise terms of the RF-NK defense agreement, but if a formal state of war is required for article 4 to kick in, such condition would not be met at this moment, for Russia is presently "not at war" with any other nation.