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.
ADVERTISEMENTAccording to the UK defense ministry Russia lost 70,000 troops in the months of May and June alone.
The employment of so-called meat grinder tactics by Putin – which involves pushing forward thousands of troops to Ukrainian defense lines in order to sap out their resources – has mean colossal losses of life of Russians.
Yet, despite the draining of military manpower, Putin’s 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’, Sinkevicius tells the Europe Conversation.
‘And then when they see that they really lack troops, they went and tapped into North Korea’, he added.
Now a Green Party MEP for Lithuania, he says the West is in no position to feel ‘war fatigue’ as Ukraine enters its third year of the Russian 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.
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 says.
He added that the current malaise in Europe, and lack of coherent response to Zelenskyy’s Victory plan was a serious concern. 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 them by the West.
‘We don’t know where Russia stops. Putin said he’s never attack Ukraine, so they’ve broken many rules before.
‘And youdon’t know where the episode ends with Now, the military capabilities that they have built with the number of troops that they have.’
