North Korea Denies Assisting Russia with Artillery Shells, Ammunitions

North Korea denied U.S. claims Tuesday that it is assisting Russia with artillery shells and ammunitions in furthering the war on Ukraine.

U.S. intelligence recently confirmed that Russia has reached out to North Korea for rockets and artillery shells.

The isolated country has been conducting dozens of tests, including nuclear capable missiles with the ability to strike the United States. North Korea has threatened the U.S. with its missiles and artillery, claiming it could “mercilessly” strike neighboring South Korean and U.S. targets.

Meanwhile, a Russian newspaper claimed Tuesday that a discussion on strategic nuclear weapons between U.S. and Russia are in the works. The Kommersant newspaper quoted four sources familiar with the discussions and said the talks may take place in the Middle East.

New START treaty talks between the U.S. and Russia aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals have been stalled since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Ukraine’s defense

Ukraine received its first delivery of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and Aspide air defense systems in its fight against Russian forces.
“We will continue to shoot down the enemy targets attacking us. Thank you to our partners: Norway, Spain and the US,” Ukrainian Minister of Defense Oleksii Reznikov wrote on Twitter.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last month the United States was accelerating the shipment of the sophisticated NASAMS to Ukraine after significant Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

The Royal United Services Institute, a London-based defense research group, underscored the urgency to provide Ukraine with more Western equipment and ammunition against missile and drone attacks.

In a report, RUSI said, “The West must avoid complacency about the need to urgently bolster Ukrainian air-defense capacity. It is purely thanks to its failure to destroy Ukraine’s mobile SAM [surface-to-air missile] systems that Russia remains unable to effectively employ the potentially heavy and efficient aerial firepower of its fixed-wing bomber and multi-role fighter fleets to bombard Ukrainian strategic targets and frontline positions from medium altitude, as it did in Syria.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Russia’s loss of experienced air crew members during the invasion of Ukraine is contributing to Moscow’s “lack of air superiority” and has likely been exacerbated by poor training along with “heightened risks of conducting close air support in dense air defense zones.”

Russia’s air capacity “is unlikely to change in the next few months,” the U.K. said in an update posted on Twitter. “Russia’s aircraft losses likely significantly outstrip their capacity to manufacture new airframes. The time required for the training of competent pilots further reduces Russia’s ability to regenerate combat air capability.”

Also Monday, Russia’s Defense Ministry took the unusual step of denying reports by Russian military bloggers that a naval infantry unit had lost hundreds of men in a fruitless offensive in eastern Ukraine, Reuters reported, citing reports by Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency.

RIA said the ministry had rejected the bloggers’ assertions that the 155th marine brigade of Russia’s Pacific Fleet had suffered “high, pointless losses in people and equipment.”

On the contrary, over 10 days, the unit had advanced 5 kilometers [over 3 miles] into Ukrainian defensive positions southwest of Donetsk, RIA quoted the ministry as saying.

The rare denial, according to Reuters, suggested the reports had touched a nerve as Russian forces are under heavy pressure in partly occupied regions of Ukraine that Moscow has proclaimed as its own territory — a land grab denounced as illegal by Kyiv, the West and most countries of the United Nations.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.