Evidence is mounting that North Korea is indeed dispatching troops to the Ukrainian frontlines, in what could be the largest overseas deployment of DPRK troops in history.

It’s easy to understand what Pyongyang hopes to gain from this move. It will earn some money while training some of its best soldiers in real battlefield conditions, and perhaps also gain access to sensitive military technologies that Russia would otherwise be unwilling to provide.

But Russia needs these troops too, and their arrival will help Vladimir Putin and his government escape, or at the very least postpone, difficult decisions about mobilization