Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[EpicRandy]

Ryuu96 said:

.@nytimes : russia is buying weapons from North Korea.
Soviet weapons have indeed exhausted their potential.Thus 🇺🇦 is switching to NATO standards.
Those who are unable to transform to NATO standards, switch to North Korean standards: be it weapons, politics,standard of living.

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 6, 2022

This is a risky move considering most Russians does not have favorable opinion on North Korea, that is if this holds any truth :

'Favorable perceptions of North Korea in Russia have gradually declined in recent years, with only 34% of Russians viewing North Korea as a friendly nation and 60% of Russians believing that North Korea's nuclear arms pose a threat to other countries; only 8% of Russians favor supporting North Korea in a potential conflict'

It is also particularly telling that they choose North Korea instead of China or other more align/stable country. The logical explanation here is that they cannot "choose" as their normal ally are doing the minimum they can to satisfy Putin while not getting sanctioned by NATO members.

This is also pretty revealing on Russia own weapon/munition manufacturing capacity. There's probably 2 main reason why they cannot up the game themselves:

1) Sanctions obviously.
2) The "war special operation is going fine narrative" as they cannot change to a full economy of war without revealing how bad the situation is.