Ukrainian soldiers announced that the mentioned missiles were “confiscated” from an unidentified ship and then delivered to Ukraine.
Source: Profimedia/SPUTNIK
Ukrainian artillery crews fired missiles made in North Korea at Russian positions and used Pyongyang’s munitions against the invading forces of his ally President Vladimir Putin, the Financial Times (FT) announced. North Korean missiles Ukrainians fire from multi-barrel missile systems A Soviet-era town near the destroyed city of Bahmut, and the whole story shows how the largest European land conflict since World War II became a kind of “Bosnian melting pot” in which weapons from all over the world are used, from outdated Soviet equipment to the latest modern assassination systems.
Speaking to the FT, a Ukrainian artillery commander who identified himself as Ruslan said yes North Korean ammunition was not popular with his troops due to its relatively high rate of inaccuracy, with many missiles being misfired or not exploding at all. Most of them were manufactured in the 1980s and 1990s, so they are old and unreliable. A member of Ruslan’s unit warned FT journalists not to get too close to the missile launcher when the crew fired North Korean munitions because “they are very unreliable and sometimes do crazy things”. These are artillery units supporting the Ukrainian attack on Russian forces on the northern and southern flanks of Bakhmut, where the Ukrainians are trying to encircle the Russians.
Ukrainian soldiers said the missiles in question were ‘seized’ from an unidentified ship and then delivered to Ukrainebut declined to provide more details. Ukraine’s defense ministry suggested the missiles were taken from Russian forces. “We capture their tanks, we capture their equipment, and it is very possible that this is also the result of the successful execution of a military operation by our army,” said Yuri Sak, adviser to the Minister of Defense of Ukraine. “Russia buys all kinds of ammunition in all the countries ruled by tyrants, including North Korea and Iran,” Suk added.
It is unlikely that North Korea would directly supply Ukraine with ammunition, as the Kim Jong Un regime supported the Russian invasion. In addition, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu flew to Pyongyang last week to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice and “strengthen cooperation” with that military.
But the White House claimed back in March that it had evidence that Moscow is negotiating with Pyongyang on the exchange of “weapons for food”. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby also alleged that Pyongyang sold rockets and missiles to Yevgeny Prigozhin’s Wagner group at the height of the Battle of Bakhmut, Russia’s longest and bloodiest invasion. Prigozhin dismissed those accusations as “gossip and speculation”.
North Korean munitions were indeed used in attacks near Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine. The Soviet ‘Grad’ is a 122 mm self-propelled artillery system designed in the USSR, and one such system can fire up to 40 rockets in less than 20 seconds from pipes mounted on the chassis of the Ural truck. Grad missile launchers have been used by both sides since Moscow first invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Human Rights Watch described Grad rockets as “notoriously indiscriminate”. Michael Coffman, senior fellow in the Russia and Eurasia program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, likens the Grad to ‘AK-47 MLRS’, as they are used by dozens of military forces around the world. Their ubiquity has prompted many countries to produce munitions for the system, including North Korea. Despite the reliability issues, Ukrainians are happy to use them. “We need all the rockets we can get,” Ruslan explains.
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(WORLD)