Russia is looking to purchase millions of rounds of artillery and rockets from North Korea according to US intelligence. This move has revealed that Russia is running low on supplies amid global sanctions. International sanctions are hitting Russia far harder than the Kremlin is willing to let on. “The Kremlin should be alarmed that it has to buy anything at all from North Korea,” said Mason Clark, Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War. 

Russian state media claimed that North Korea was ready to provide 100,000 troops to help hostilities in Ukraine earlier in August. Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora said that North Korea could send 1000 workers to help rebuild Donbas Matsegora in exchange for equipment from heavy engineering factories. Pyongyang is planning to send these workers to rebuild the region and is willing to send more if requested by the Russian government. 

Russia reportedly was going through 20,000 shells per day as of July according to the Royal United Services Institute. Though it is important to note that the country has access to large stockpiles of artillery from the Soviet era and a means to manufacture ammunition and weaponry amid sanctions. Shelling has been Russia’s main strategy and to keep supplies coming amid sanctions, looking to North Korea is Russia’s best option. 

The Kremlin and Pyongyang exchanged messages of cooperation on August 15 Korea’s independence day. North Korea and Russia had a “common front for frustrating the hostile forces’ military threat and provocation,” Kim Jong-Un said 

Russia’s hunt for weapons from North Korea is a sign of ‘desperation’ and that ‘things are not going well’ in Ukraine according to US intelligence. Ukraine has international support and is receiving military aid from NATO. The Kremlin may be losing more than it bargained for.