$2,000 a month to die in Ukraine?

Putin's war reached a couple of turning points yesterday. First, Russian losses -- its soldiers killed, wounded, or missing (which usually means captured, though in this type of warfare can simply mean that no identifiable body was found) has passed 700,000. That's a Ukrainian estimate, but Western analysts generally accept it as fairly close to the mark. Indeed, the names of 75,382 officers and enlisted men have been identified and published by BBC News Russian and the independent site Mediazona as killed in action in Ukraine. "The actual toll is likely much higher," adds the BBC -- perhaps twice as high.

Second, the North Koreans recently recruited as cannon fodder have been confirmed in action in the Kursk province of Russia, recently invaded by Ukraine. According to Ukrainian reports, they now number 8,000 and are paid the equivalent of about $2,000 a month. (Possibly, like the Cuban doctors rented out to African nations, the money may actually go to their home government, rather than to the recruits or their families.) Yesterday, an official at Ukraine's National Security & Defense Council said on his Telegraph channel that the first North Koreans had "come under fire" from Ukrainian forces. Using these unfortunate youngsters in Kursk province enables Pyongyang to argue that its troops are helping to defend Russian territory rather than engaging in an aggressive war.