March 17, 2025:
While Ukraine has dozens of countries supplying military and economic aid, Russia has only Iran and North Korea. These two nations have been under economic sanctions for decades while Russia has had to deal with sanctions for only eleven years. Iran has long been a supplier of missiles, drones and other military material. Last year Iran suffered heavy losses from Israeli air strikes. Iran was forced to abandon its operations in Syria and Lebanon because a surprise attack on Syria by forces of former Islamic terrorists ousted its Assad regime. For Russia this meant Iran had little to sell, other than some Saheed drones.
North Korea had more weapons, munitions and even soldiers that Russia could have, for a price. During the first year of the war, North Korea only provided weapons and ammunition. In the last year Russia was able to obtain about 11,000 North Korean soldiers. This seemed like a good idea at the time. Russia hired 12,000 North Korean soldiers. These soldiers were deceived by their own government, which told the Russians that these soldiers were expendable and they could do whatever they wanted with them. By the end of the year the North Korean soldiers were in combat and currently half of them have been killed, wounded or captured. There were no deserters. A portion of the North Korean force consisted of special operations troops who were there to advise and train the North Koreans as well as ensuring that none of them deserted.
North Koreans were ordered to kill themselves rather than be captured and many wounded North Koreans were seen doing this. Others did not, sometimes pretending to be unconscious until the Russians came along to collect the wounded. At that point the North Koreans felt safe from their own superiors who had orders to kill the wounded if they did not kill themselves.
Russia agreed to treat any wounded North Koreans but when hundreds of wounded North Korean soldiers were taken to Russian military hospitals it was discovered there were few, if any interpreters who could translate for the medical personnel to treat wounds. This complicated treatment led to many avoidable deaths. There were few translators in combat, which led to at least two incidents of North Korean and Russian troops firing on each other. To the North Koreans the Russians and Ukrainians looked similar, spoke similar languages and wore similar combat uniforms. The lack of interpreters led to the North Korean troops becoming a liability to the Russians as well.
The North Koreans operated in their own units, which were two or three brigades. There were some Russian and North Korean bilingual officers and troops attached to the staffs of these brigades. That helped the brigade commanders to understand what the Russians wanted done, but there were problems getting that information to the North Korean soldiers in a timely and useful manner.
One thing the Russians did notice was that the North Koreans were far more professional than Russians. Their attack tactics were more disciplined and, unlike the Russians, the North Koreans took their dead and wounded off the battlefield. Russians also discovered that North Korean battlefield medical care was superior to what Russia offered. North Korea had also agreed to treat seriously wounded Russian soldiers in North Korean hospitals. The Russian patients noted that the care was far superior to what they would encounter in a Russian hospital.