True. They have a lot more though. Most countries haven't invested heavily in their 155 mm. S Korea, with all their artillery pointed across the DMZ for decades now, is an exception.
Russia is using low-quality artillery shells from North Korea that are often defective and cause problems on the front lines, Ukraine's army said.
It is particularly a problem in the "Dnepr" grouping of forces operating around the southern Kherson region under the command of Col. Gen. Mikhail Teplinsky, according to Ukraine's army.
Defense expert Trevor Taylor from the London-based Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies previously told Politico that it was unclear whether the North Korean ammunition was of a reliable quality.
Meanwhile, fears are also growing of a Ukrainian shell famine as Western military aid shows signs of faltering.
During its counteroffensive in the summer, Ukrainian forces were burning through artillery shells at a rate of about 7,000 rounds a day, according to figures from Estonia's defense ministry.
Israel's war with Hamas could also divert tens of thousands of artillery rounds intended for Ukraine, Axios reported in October.
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How would Ukraine know this??? Are they inspecting exploded shells and determining it to be north Korean? If so, how? And why actually? Why would they inspect backfired explosives that belonged to the enemy?
It's called military intelligence, and yes of course that's what Ukraine does. Knowing how your enemy is armed and what specific advantages and weaknesses their equipment has can literally help to win a war. They'd be stupid not to inspect any remnants.
Ukraine also engages in a fair amount of propaganda (so much so that US and UK intelligence regularly contradict them), so asking for evidence isn't too unreasonable.
Military intelligence is not fool proof. It is still subject to inaccuracy and counterintelligence. UK airforce thought Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe outnumber them during the Battle of Britain, but it turned out to be the opposite. Similarly, US thought the Soviet Union has outsizedly more nuclear weapons, but it turned out it is the other way around. The Soviets in World War II had also been exemplary with feeding misinformation to the Germans.
The Ukrainian military is still an organ of the Ukrainian government, who still has intention to keep morale up of their own people while undermining the enemy's. This is propaganda war as much as military one. After all, Kyiv admitted to having lied about the "Ghost of Kyiv" fighter ace pilot who supposedly shot down several Russian planes in the early days of the invasion. People cheered on that myth until confirmed to be untrue.
I'm not trying to undermine Ukraine's claim or effort and sow complete mistrust on Ukraine in their struggle, but I would reserve skepticism every now and then when any belligerent nations make extraordinary claims which require extraordinary evidence. Truth is the first casualty of war after all.
The same way we know what people close to Putin are saying. Spies. Turns out, you offer people a little money, and many of them are more than happy to tell you anything you want to know. They did a test in New York once and found people were willing to give up corporate secrets for a bit of chocolate.