The United States claims that Russia has been forced to purchase weapons from North Korea due to sanctions that have severely limited Russia’s ability to supply its military.
According to a senior American official, Moscow is currently negotiating a deal with Pyongyang to purchase millions of rockets and artillery shells in Ukraine.
As the conflict continued, it was speculated that Russia might be compelled to purchase additional weapons from North Korea.
They added that purchasing from North Korea demonstrated “severe supply shortages.”
The New York Times was the first to report the intelligence. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense responded to the report with a sarcastic tweet, claiming it proved “Soviet weapons” had “exhausted their potential.”
The ministry claimed that Russia was moving closer to North Korean standards in “weapons, politics, and standard of living” while Ukraine was adopting NATO norms.
The Kim Jong-un regime has stated that the United States is to blame for the conflict and that the West is pursuing a “hegemonic policy” that justifies Russia’s use of force.
North Korea pledged to strengthen its “comradely friendship” with Moscow last month after recognising the independence of Russia’s two proxy statelets in eastern Ukraine, the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics.
State media reported in Pyongyang that Russian President Vladimir Putin had promised deeper ties between his country and North Korea.
According to the Finnish Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Russia’s revenue from energy exports has not been significantly impacted by the country’s recent round of broad economic sanctions.
It concludes that Russia has profited €158bn (£136bn) from rising prices of fossil fuels during the six-month invasion, with imports from the EU accounting for more than half of this total.
However, the United States claims that export restrictions and economic sanctions impact the Russian armed forces.
Last week, Biden administration officials told American media that Iran had sent its first drones to Russia.
There is evidence, according to US intelligence, that Russian operators have travelled to Iran to learn how to use the Mohajer-6 and Shahed series of weapons.
They told reporters recently that many of the drones have been plagued by mechanical and technical issues since they were delivered.
Although Iran has officially denied supplying weapons to either side, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan claimed in July that Iran was planning to supply Moscow with hundreds of drones, some of which would have combat capabilities, for its war in Ukraine.
Officials from the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense reported on Tuesday that due to heavy “combat losses,” Russia is having trouble keeping up with demand for its battlefield drones.
On the same day, other things happened in Ukraine:
Reports of new Russian missile strikes have come in from all over the country, and in the Kryvyi Rih region of central Ukraine, a fuel depot has been reportedly set on fire. Thick black smoke was seen rising from the depot in a photo posted by the governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. On Monday night, two missiles were fired at it, according to Valentyn Reznichenko, who also noted that there was currently no information available about casualties.
A woman’s body was discovered in the rubble of a destroyed apartment building in the city of Kharkiv, located in the country’s northeast.
On Tuesday, Donetsk’s Russian-backed separatists, who are in control of the city, claimed that Ukrainian government forces had shelled the eastern part of Donetsk, injuring a civilian.
