Putin Pulls From Stalin’s Playbook in Sending North Koreans Disguised as Buryats to Ukraine

Opinion | As news of North Korean troops being sent to Russia to fight against Ukraine made global headlines, some sources claimed these troops were being trained at a military base in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, to be sent to the Ukraine front line “disguised as Buryats” (since both Koreans and Buryats are Asians and ostensibly hard to tell apart).  Buryats are an Indigenous Siberian nation of Mongolic origin which is known to be significantly overrepresented both among Russia’s invading forces in Ukraine and among the Russian-side casualties of the war.“Putin has negotiated that Koreans from the DPRK [North Korea] would fight in Ukraine under the guise of Buryats, the media writes.