Pentagon officials and NATO chief Mark Rutte have this week confirmed that thousands of North Korean troops are currently in the process of joining Russia’s war against Ukraine. The arrival of North Korean soldiers on the battlefields of Europe is an historically unprecedented event that represents a major escalation in the largest European invasion since World War II. Nevertheless, the Western reaction has so far been strikingly muted, with plenty of condemnation but little attempt to impose any actual costs on Moscow or Pyongyang. This lack of resolve is exactly what Vladimir Putin was counting on.
Ever since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine first began more than a decade ago with the 2014 seizure of Crimea, the West’s response to Russian aggression has been defined by a crippling fear of escalation that has only served to embolden Putin further. During the initial armed takeover of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, Western leaders refused to intervene and urgedKyiv not to resist for fear of sparking a larger conflict. Instead, the international community limited itself to imposing a series of modest economic sanctions. Understandably, Moscow interpreted this as a tacit green light to go further. Weeks later, Kremlin forces started a separatist war in eastern Ukraine that would simmer and flare for the following eight years, setting the stage for the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022.
Voice of Ukraine 