However, the fact that Russia is desperate does not make it any less dangerous.
Due to the limited ability to produce and import key resources for war against Ukraine, the Russian Federation is studying the possibilities of arrangements with North Korea. This was announced by the spokesman of the US State Department, Ned Price.
He emphasized that Russia has become more desperate in recent months.
“We have seen many signs of this desperation – mass mobilization, repression inside Russia that followed this mobilization, attempts at annexation by force, the introduction of martial law in the regions that Putin tried to annex. Just think about that for a second. Putin annexed these regions, claiming that there are people there who are so desperate for salvation from the Ukrainian state that they want to join Russia. Now Putin, I think, is proving a lie by declaring martial law in the regions that, as he claimed just a couple of weeks ago, were so desperate to join Russia,” Price believes.
However, in his opinion, the fact that Russia is desperate does not make it any less dangerous.
“We have seen that Russia, perhaps out of desperation, is turning to countries like Iran for goods that it is unable to produce or acquire in other ways. Some of this is a reflection of export controls, sanctions, and economic measures that we have introduced against the Russian Federation. The point is that they don't have the ability to organically produce, to import the key resources they need, and that's why they turn to Iran. They are studying the possibilities of agreements with North Korea,” said Price.
According to him, the United States can confirm that Russian military personnel based in Crimea used Iranian UAVs for strikes across Ukraine, including in strikes around Kyiv in recent days.
“We estimate that Iranian personnel, Iranian military personnel, were in Crimea and assisted Russia in these operations. Russia has received dozens of these UAVs to date and will likely continue to receive additional deliveries in the future. Despite all this, we see that Russia and Iran continue to lie. “The Iranians continue to claim that they are not providing these materials, but incontrovertible evidence is emerging, and some of this evidence has been presented to the UN Security Council,” Price added.
“When Russian President Vladimir Putin first gave the order to send his troops into Ukraine, I think it's fair to say that Russia had ambitious goals. The goal of the Russian Federation was to destroy the Ukrainian state. To destroy the Ukrainian government, Ukrainian democracy, and in many ways the Ukrainian identity itself. It is wrapped in this distorted idea that Ukraine has no right to exist as a country,” Price said, pointing to the evolution of Russia's campaign against Ukraine.
However, according to him, these “grandiose goals” are transformed into what can be called “grotesque goals”.
“Since Russia has recognized that it is unable to realize these grandiose ambitions, it has turned to the grotesque. It went from the desire to overthrow the state and wipe the people and the country from the face of the earth to targeted strikes on power grids, on electricity supplies, and even more terribly – on neighborhoods, residential buildings, shopping centers, train stations, schools,” Price added.
Also read: North Korea has officially passed the law on the use of nuclear weapons
Previously, the White House said that Russia could purchase artillery shells and missiles from North Korea, calling it one proof of Moscow's desperation against the backdrop of a shortage of supplies for the war against Ukraine.
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North Korea has said it has never supplied weapons or ammunition to Russia and has no plans to do so.
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