The North Korean-made projectiles, the use of which was previously unknown in Ukraine, were shown to newspaper journalists by the soldiers who fired at the Russians from the Soviet-era “Grad” missile system near Bakhmut.
The marking shows that most of this ammunition was produced in the 80s and 90s.
The example of these shells shows that in the largest land conflict in Europe since World War II, different generations of military equipment from all over the world are being used simultaneously, starting from outdated Soviet equipment and ending with modern high-precision weapons, the newspaper says.
Ukrainian artillery commander Ruslan admitted to the newspaper that North Korean shells often do not work or explode.
Journalists were warned not to get too close to the missile launchers because North Korea’s munitions are “very unreliable and sometimes do crazy things.” Despite this, Ukrainians continue to use them. “We need every missile we can get,” Ruslan said.
North Korea is considered one of Russia’s few allies in the war, so it is unlikely that North Korea itself supplied the ammunition to Ukraine. Gunners told the “Financial Times” that a “friendly” country had “collected” shells from a ship. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine suggested that the North Korean missiles could be trophies taken from the Russians.
2023-07-29 06:55:07
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