Opinion: Putin’s North Korea visit comes at a crucial moment

Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and senior columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more CNN Opinion.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives in North Korea on Tuesday, it will kick up yet another gust in the recent swirl of diplomatic activity surrounding Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine.

But unlike the dizzying number of summits of the past few weeks, this gathering of dictators in Pyongyang is meant to help Moscow – not Kyiv.

In recent weeks, Ukraine’s supporters – led by the US and other Western democracies – have held multiple meetings, offering not only symbolic backing but also very concrete new assistance to besieged Ukrainians.

So, it’s hardly surprising that Putin is pushing against his diplomatic isolation and seeking to invigorate his weapons pipeline; the main purposes of his visiting the North Korean capital he has not seen in nearly a quarter of a century.

The timing of all this stepped-up diplomacy, and of renewed efforts to squeeze concrete results beyond declarations of enduring support, is not a coincidence. A seemingly unrelated process unfolding thousands of miles away is fueling the increasing urgency.

On both sides of the conflict, world leaders are keeping a wary eye on the calendar. With each gathering, summit, historical commemoration, the day draws nearer to what is arguably the most important event of 2024 – the US presidential election, in which one of the candidates has indicated he disapproves of the scale of Washington’s support for Ukraine and