MOSCOW, 6 Sep - RIA Novosti. The New York Times publication about the alleged supply of North Korean artillery shells and missiles to Russia is part of an information campaign designed to create the impression of a shortage of funds in Russia for the successful continuation of a special military operation, military expert Alexei Leonkov told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
The American newspaper New York Times, citing declassified US intelligence data, reported that Russia allegedly buys millions of artillery shells and missiles from North Korea. According to the publication, this indicates that the sanctions "seriously limited supply chains and forced Moscow to turn to rogue countries for military supplies."
"Nonsense. We have a very developed ammunition industry, which works and produces shells and missiles in series. We have KTRV (Tactical Missile Armament Corporation), which makes a range of missiles, Almaz-Antey, which produces anti-aircraft guided missiles, there is the Techmash concern, which produces a wide range of artillery and rocket projectiles. Everything has been working for a long time and serially," Leonkov said.
According to him, even ammunition in long–term storage warehouses has been updated in recent years - shells accumulated in Soviet times with expiring storage periods have been replaced with new ones and disposed of.
"This is the same attempt of stuffing allegedly from intelligence, as the topic with drones from Iran. The purpose of these throw–ins is to support the theme that we allegedly have run out of missiles," the source said.
The inconsistency of such statements, in his opinion, is proved by current events in the Mykolaiv-Krivoy Rog direction.
"There is such a consumption of ammunition that the "dill" did not even dream of, they are simply equated with the ground there. How is this possible if the Russian army did not have such reserves? And such a fire impact on the enemy is now taking place along the entire line of contact," the expert added.
Earlier, the statements of the New York Times were considered ridiculous by another expert interviewed by RIA Novosti - associate professor of the Faculty of World Politics of Lomonosov Moscow State University Alexey Fenenko. According to him, this is "like saying that the United States buys weapons from Paraguay."
