Russia needs foreign troops if it expects to keep up its war effort in Ukraine through next year. It needs foreign equipment, too. As the wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year, the stocks of old Cold War weaponry the Kremlin depends on to equip its regiments are running dangerously low.

If there is one thing that the ongoing Ukraine War has established, it is that contemporary conflict in Europe is anything but limited to Europe. The deployment of 12,000 North Korean troops to Russia has underscored the fact that North Korea (DPRK) is now not just a peripheral supporter of the war,