Explosive growth: Russia has tripled explosives production but still depends on ammunition from North Korea

Shipments of ammunition from North Korea to Russia were previously detected by a consortium of Western investigative outlets. In 2024, researchers at CSIS concluded, based on high-resolution satellite imagery, that around 2.5 million artillery rounds had been delivered to Russia by early 2024, mainly through the Far Eastern ports of Vostochny and Dunay. According to a 2025 investigation by the British NGO Open Source Centre, over the twenty months from August 2023 to March 2025, between 4.2 million and 5.8 million rounds were imported into Russia.

According to estimates by South Korea’s intelligence service cited in the media, around 12 million rounds had been delivered from North Korea to Russia by July 2025 – roughly two to two and a half times the number estimated by the Open Source Centre. These reports provided no specific evidence beyond sources South Korean intelligence; as such, The Insider considers the Open Source Centre’s lower estimate to be the most accurate and best-substantiated figure for the period in question.

At the end of 2025, Vadym Skibitsky, deputy head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, told Reuters that North Korea had run out of artillery shells. As a result, there were reportedly no deliveries at all in September 2025, and North Korea shifted to supplying drones instead. South Korean media also reported a sharp decline in ammunition deliveries in early 2026. However, The Insider’s investigation found that, judging by cargo descriptions and destinations — namely, artillery ammunition depots — shipments marked “explosive materials” were still being actively sent through the port of Nakhodka in 2026.