The conscription of around 10,000 North Korean troops to fight on Ukrainian soil means Putin is under less pressure to replace the approximately 1000 troops Russia is losing on the battlefield daily.
According to recent UK defence ministry estimates, Russia lost 70,000 troops in May and June alone.
The employment of so-called meat grinder tactics by Russian President Vladimir Putin – which involves pushing forward thousands of troops to Ukrainian defence lines to sap out their resources – has meant colossal losses of life of Russians.
Yet, despite the draining of military manpower, Putin managed to leave the main cities of St Petersburg and Moscow untouched by conscription.
“They used prisoners, they used conscripts, but taking them from faraway regions; they haven’t touched bigger cities such as Moscow and St Petersburg,” former European Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius told the Europe Conversation.
“And then when they see that they really lack troops, they went and tapped into North Korea,” he added.
Now a Greens MEP for Lithuania, he said the West is in no position to feel “war fatigue” as Ukraine enters its third year of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.
“I cannot blame Ukrainians for war fatigue, they’ve lost so many loved ones and the close ones, family members, and yet they’re really defending fiercely,” Sinkevičius said.
“But, us, in Europe, I don’t understand why there is war fatigue. We are not at war. We are not doing enough.”
“And I hear more and more people, leaders speaking about the war fatigue,” he explained.
Sinkevičius added that the current malaise in Europe and the lack of coherent response to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory plan were serious concerns.
Compounded with this is the newly injected columns of troops in favour of Russia, added to that the growing capabilities. Meanwhile, Ukraine suffers major recruitment issues and restrictions on how it uses the weapons given to Kyiv by the West.
‘We don’t know where Russia stops. Putin said he’d never attack Ukraine, so they’ve broken many rules before,” Sinkevičius said.
“And you don’t know where the episode ends. Now, the military capabilities that they have built with the number of troops that they have,” he concluded.
