this post was submitted on 05 Dec 2024
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Summary

North Korean troops sent to Russia to support its war in Ukraine remain sidelined due to poor training and logistical issues, according to Western officials.

These soldiers are expected to relieve Russian troops in secondary positions to free up forces for frontline battles in regions like Kursk, though they are unlikely to see combat in eastern Ukraine.

The war continues to take a massive toll, with over 700,000 Russian soldiers killed or wounded since February 2022, while both sides face challenges replacing losses.

Russia’s reliance on poorly trained recruits and prison conscripts highlights its growing manpower issues.

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[–] [email protected] 108 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Man if Russia is telling you your troops are unfit for battle, you know your troops are absolute fucking garbo.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

It could be the opposite, the Russians are so poorly trained they don’t recognise viable tactics that aren’t human waves.

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[–] [email protected] 99 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

That's what happens when you train for theatrics

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Are you telling me there's more to war than military parades?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Monkey bars. Lots of monkey bars.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Man there's a lot of things I forgot about growing up in the 00's, but "frantically talking heads beside 10-second looping footage of dudes on monkey bars in the middle of the desert" was definitely more a part of it than it should have been lol.

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[–] [email protected] 71 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

Also, probably malnourished. They may have gotten decent rations since they were conscripted (North Korea has a “military first” policy), but up until then they would have grown up with a calorie deficit.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Exactly, if you grow up with a calorie deficit , you don't develop the way you should have. This is not something you can revert by suddenly eating decent food.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Just because they're 4'6" and have bones the density of plywood doesn't mean they can't shoot right?

Meanwhile at the range- Holy shit his arm came right off!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

My heart hurts for how tough it is for those people...

...but this made me laugh out loud more than I care to admit lmao.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

They're poorly trained by Russian standards? That's impressively bad!

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

More poorly trained than a convict 2 weeks out of prison? Doesn't seem possible...

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

There's probably a base level of competence someone who grew up in modern society has without training that the North Koreans don't have.

Like even if a convict has never operated a drone, there's probably a good amount of them that have played FPS games. That experience can be used as a launching board into proper training.

Meanwhile the North Koreans might have absolutely zero experience with video games and smartphones, and extremely limited experience with computers in general. There's so much you'd have to teach them before you can even start drone training.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (3 children)

there's probably a good amount of them that have played FPS games. That experience can be used as a launching board into proper training.

1- rush into the enemies

2- get shot in the face

3- call your squadmates a racial slur

Yeah I don't think online FPS strategies would work very well in a real war

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

You joke, but Call of Duty improved my laser tag abilities considerably. Not to say laser tag equals war, but some strategies and concepts carry over.

I bet the North Koreans are struggling with things like "left click the mouse see to select what you want. Right click the mouse to bring up an options menu." "No. Don't point the mouse at the screen. Just move it around on top of this little pad. See the arrow moving when you do that?"

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

Well it's more like

  1. Use a device that is similar to a PlayStation controller to command a drone to rush into enemies
  2. Keep that drone alive long enough for it to crash into enemy armor and explode
  3. Call your enemies a racial slur
  4. Post the entire thing to a sketchy streaming service set to techno music.

So yeah there's actually a non-zero amount of commonality there.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Lol your 12&3 is a pretty good summary of Russian military history. The thing about Russians is there's always more Russians.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

Unfit for battle probably means starving

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I feel like tv and movies do more than we think for giving a base-layer of military training. I'm not saying it's LIKE military training, but people have at least seen what they're going to do before training

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago

Training people can be harder when the trainees have to unlearn bad habits or knowledge. Ask anyone who has tutored previously self-taught students an artform or craft.

In some ways, media exposure can help to introduce broad concepts, and sometimes there are excellent examples in media (My Cousin Vinny and Legally Blonde have been used in some US law school course curriculum to show how the parts of the judicial system are supposed to operate, iirc), but oftentimes preconceived notions can hinder training for the real thing.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Who knew practicing to be a Rockette wouldn't prepare you for combat lmao.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Bro I don't think you understand the real power of dance

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 weeks ago

Who can blame them

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

They discovered Porn when they got to Russia and have been chronically exhausted ever since...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Developed huge muscles in one arm

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Prefect for grenade throwing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

more like rock throwing. I doubt they have many grenades left. the drones keep stealing them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

And no matter how hard they try, they can't fire off more than a dozen shots per day.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 weeks ago

Imagine the Russian commander’s surprise when he realized North Koreans don’t know anything about StarCraft!

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I thought they had already been getting killed fighting in Ukraine? I haven't followed the news too closely recently though so I'm probably wrong, just seen some headlines around the place.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

IIRC the NK soldiers have been fighting (and dying) in the Ukrainian occupied parts of Russia, and haven't been deployed to the Russian occupied parts of Ukraine yet.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Yet the article clearly states that they haven’t fought yet? Which is it?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Fog of war and all, so I'm guessing no one knows, but here's my take: This is more recent so it's probably more true that they haven't actually been fighting yet. IIRC those rumors before of them fighting has only been coming from South Korea and Ukraine. Ukraine, while I support them, clearly has a biased motivation to seem as outnumbered and out-gunned as possible to express a need to their allied nations to give them more weapons, and even to try to get them to join the war themselves. South Korea's bias is pretty obvious. Neither offered much physical evidence except I think a flag they found.

The US is also biased, but are a step removed, so I believe their intelligence on this topic more than either of those two until we get something even more recent and clear. Also it's hilarious to me imagining them being worse than Russian convicts lol.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago

I had thought so too. Apparently there have been a bunch of false reports on them being involved in fighting. Which makes sense, because their involvement in this conflict was entirely political theater to begin with - they were sent over to try and scare the western allies into backing down or else risk a wider global conflict. USA and others called their bluff and the NK soldiers have been sitting in Russia ever since. They can't fight and they almost certainly don't speak any Russian or have enough translators to be an effective assault force in a combat scenario.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Must be a fucking wird ride for these soldiers. First porn and now learning that you actually have been fucked by your own government by not even training you the way you are supposed to be trained.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 weeks ago

Yah, the rumor is that the north Koreans got ahold of cellphones with open web access for the first time in their life. So they immediately started watching all the porn and jacking themselves raw.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Never seen the internet in your life. 25 year old male. What's the first thing you look for?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Supposedly, once they got across the border and got access to Russian smart phones, they quickly discovered porn. There were several reports (though TBF, they could have been propaganda), that the NK soldiers kept getting caught masturbating by the Russians they were working alongside, and some were incapacitated due to the fact that they had masturbation-related injuries. Like the NK soldiers just used every single opportunity to whip out their new phones and beat their meat until it was bloody.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm kinda glad I was on a 28.8k modem when I was a kid so we had to watch the naked girls come through line by line.

Saw crazy porn on VHS at 13 though and definitely beat it til it bled.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 weeks ago

Never stopped him before

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 weeks ago

Well yeah, when they're just cranking the hog and eating food for the first time, what did they expect?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 weeks ago

if I was a russian oligarch you couldn’t pay me enough money to admit this.

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