It is taking place A paradox in the war that is taking place in Europe. While Ukraine has weakened Russian artillery, another growing threat has been increasing more and more over the months. If kyiv became a industry of combat drones in record time, Moscow is determined to overcome.
As? To begin with, with the arrival of thousands of North Koreans.
Drones, workers and an alliance. The strategic alliance between Russia and North Korea has ceased to be a marginal cooperation to become a structural axis with direct implications in the evolution of the war in Ukraine and in the security architecture of Eastern Asia.
According to diplomatic sources cited in media Japanese and Western, Pyongyang has begun to send an army of up to 25,000 workers to the Special Economic Zone of Alabuga, in the Russian Republic of Tartaristan. THE OBJECTIVE: Massive support the industrial production of Shahed dronesof Iranian origin, used by Moscow As a main weapon of saturation and attack in Ukraine.
But there is more. This collaboration also includes knowledge transfer operational, training in the use of unmanned systems, and a component of reconstruction aid in combat areas, Like Kurskwhich has suffered important damage from the Ukrainian offensive of August 2024.
The arrival of North Korean personnel not only represents a solution to the growing labor shortage qualified in Russia, but also contributes to consolidating a political and military axis based on convergent interests against the West.
Mass kamikazes. The Alabuga factory, epicenter of the Russian Drones Shahed program, currently produces some 2,000 units per month with the objective of reach 5,000 Thanks to this new workforce. In fact, satellites They have detected an enormous expansion in the industrial zone, with the construction of Collective bedrooms designed to accommodate hundreds of workersfollowing an intensive and permanent occupation architecture.
The logistics reinforcement aims to guarantee the continuity of production even under direct threat, since the plant has repeatedly suffered attacks by Ukrainian drones, as it happened June 15 with a Airrakt A-22 loaded with explosives that towed a glider, unpublished tactics Until then and capable of attacking two goals simultaneously.
Russian Drones Shahed
A key drone. The Russian need to maintain pressure on Ukrainian defenses has turned Shahed into the backbone of his aerial offensive. It We have counted before: these vehicles are modified to carry major explosive loads and, in some cases, elements of autonomy that make them more difficult to intercept.
He massive use (With attacks that reach more than a hundred drones per night) it forces Ukraine to accelerate their anti -aircraft reserves, progressively weakening their defense and reaction capacity.
Rebuild with military logic. The sending of North Korean workers is not limited to the production of weapons. After his visit to Pyongyang, Russian Defense Minister Serguéi Shoigú, confirmed the incorporation of about 1,000 North Korean and at least 5,000 civil workers which will participate in the reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure in Kursk. This region, invaded by Ukrainian forces In August 2024 And recovered by Russia after weeks of combat, it has been deeply damaged.
Moscow considers its reconstruction essential both in terms of national morals and the logistics sustainability of the front. Not just that. They counted the Twz analysts that the initiative also responds to a Internal logic: Kremlin perceives Central Asian migrants as politically unstable and potentially vulnerable to recruitment for Western or Ukrainian intelligence services, which has driven the search of “Leales migrants”like North Koreans.
A labor hybrid. According to General Ukrainian Kyrylo Budanovpart of these workers will end up signing Contracts with the Ministry Russian defense, constituting unofficial units of Russian nationality but North Korean origin, which would mark a new step in hybridization between foreign workforce and regular military structure.
Inverse technological transfer. It is another leg to analyze. The alliance has an even deeper geopolitical dimension. According to BudanovRussia is actively helping North Korea to improve the accuracy of Your KN-23 ballistic missilesto Modernize your missiles long-range air-air and reinforce the capacities of Its nuclear submarinesparticularly in relation to missile launch from submerged platforms.
Strategic evolution. In exchange for Labor and Cooperation Logistics, Moscow is consolidating a North Korean offensive capacity that could alter military balance in the Korean peninsula. In that sense and how We countPyongyang is developing (with Russian assistance) the necessary infrastructure to produce local versions Of the Shahed drones, which would endow the regime of Kim Jong-un of an arsenal capable of, for example, saturate the aerial defenses of South Korea through mass and simultaneous attacks.
This change represents a strategic evolution for a country that until a few years ago operated outside the large global military production chains, but now emerges as a relevant actor in asymmetric technological warfare.
“Other” world order. In short, the image of a giant factory where thousands of Russians and North Koreans come together In a Shahed drone assembly line, that Moscow-Pyongyang alliance at a new level. If you also want, it marks the emergence of an authoritarian axis not only military, but also economic and structuralthat frontally challenges the Western Alliances System.
What doubt fits, if Russia manages to stabilize its forehead through Drones produced by mass With North Korean help and at the same time strengthens Pyongyang’s strategic capabilities in Asia, global security architecture will experience A dangerous mutation. Now it is not simply an exchange of resources for services, but the training of a Coordinated Interest Network With a shared narrative against the United States, Europe and its Asian allies.
Image | KNCA, X.
In Xataka | Ukraine is surviving in the war thanks to the drones. Russia has an ally to change that: North Korea
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