PARIAH PALS

Russia Is Being Forced to Turn to North Korea for Artillery Shells

The recently declassified report shows the trouble Russia has in supplying its military as it is now forced to turn to the Hermit Kingdom and other outcast nations for weaponry.

According to declassified American intelligence, Russia is currently purchasing millions of artillery shells from North Korea. Coupled with the recent disclosure that Moscow is now receiving trouble-plagued drones from Iran, Russia’s reliance on pariah states to supply its military reveals that global sanctions are choking the nation’s supply chains. The declassified report on the North Korea sale, however, provided little in the way of details about the type of weaponry or size of the shipment. A U.S. official told the New York Times, though, that Moscow was expected to continue purchasing military supplies from North Korea in the future. While economic sanctions following the Ukrainian invasion have yet to hurt Russia due to the jump in energy prices, other European and American actions blocking the country’s ability to purchase electronics and artillery internationally appear to now be having an impact. “The Kremlin should be alarmed that it has to buy anything at all from North Korea,” the Institute for the Study of War’s Mason Clark told the New York Times.