The Ukraine War is about to reach its 1,000-day milestone and has been going on since February 2022. This is Europe’s biggest conflict since WWII. In this past year, there have been 11,000 plus Ukrainian civilian deaths and 23,000 plus Ukrainian civilian injuries. Ukraine has been trying to join NATO to gain the protections that the NATO countries have. They have not been admitted, but NATO has been supporting them in their efforts to fight the Russians by sending them a variety of weapons. Russia has its allies such as Iran which has been sending them missiles, and Belarus which has been offering itself as a front for Russia to attack Ukraine. This past summer the Wagner Group, a private paramilitary mercenary organization and one of Putin’s greatest allies in this war, stated that they would no longer be fighting in this war on behalf of the Russians due to all of the unnecessary deaths it has caused them. This has led North Korea to join in Russian war efforts against Ukraine. 

South Korea’s intelligence agency said that an initial group of 1,500 soldiers had been sent to Russia, (as of November 1st), and were fitted with Russian military uniforms, Russian-made weapons, and fake documents claiming that they were from Siberia. North Korea has sent up to 12,000 troops, (as of November 5, 2024). Ukrainian troops in Kyiv have made contact with North Korean units who were all dressed in Russian uniforms and mixed in with Russian soldiers. This will make it hard to count the amount of North Korean casualties in this war. North Korean combat troops are being sent by Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, under the Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership which is a defense pact signed by Putin and Kim Jong Un this past summer. The Russian military has been training North Korean troops in artillery, drones, and trench clearing in order to prepare for this war.

North Korea’s involvement in this war will affect the war’s outcome, especially since they are sending troops. They are the first country to send their own troops to fight in this war. Other countries have only supported a side by sending supplies. It is expected that North Korean soldiers will be sent to Russia’s Kursk border region in order to fight the Ukrainians. Russia’s war tactics involve a lot of casualties; since the start of the war, they have had 700,000 casualties. With the support and troops of North Korea, Russia can continue to use these tactics to try to overwhelm their opponent–Ukraine.