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

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@lemmy.worldEnglish
    8•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@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4•2 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@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2•2 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.

              • @Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
                3•2 months ago

                Considering the economies of areas with clean, modern hygiene vs a lack of hygiene, I’d say yes, yes it is.

                This is more stubborn, cultural issues. Russia has poor areas because the wealthy don’t feel rich without poor people to look down on and poor people in those areas view themselves as more rugged and strong without modern conveniences(although once a rural Russian tries some modern living while in school, they don’t go home). Similar circumstances with rural Americans.