Russia needs foreign troops if it expects to keep up its war effort in Ukraine through next year. It needs foreign equipment, too. As the wider war on Ukraine grinds toward its fourth year, the stocks of old Cold War weaponry the Kremlin depends on to equip its regiments are running dangerously low.

Russia has amassed a large force of tens of thousands — including recently arrived North Korean troops — to carry out an assault on the Ukrainian positions in Russia’s Kursk region expected in the coming days,

For 1,000 days, Russia’s proxies have kept supplies flowing, sanctions sidestepped, and weapons streaming into the battlefield—and that’s only the beginning.